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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


“ I ’M NOT A SPOILED CHILD ” (page 137) . . . Frontispiece 

TEA ON THE EAST PORCH 126 

IN THE BROILING SUN, OBLIVIOUS OF THE HEAT . 162 
“SUPPOSE YOU TAKE MISS FOWLER HOME” . . .214 


Think you there was, or might be such a man as this 
I dreamed of ? — Antony and Cleopatra . 

It all happened in the most curious fashion 
to begin with. If Lieutenant Adams had not 
sent to Miss Esther the particularly heavy 
box which contained some sort of a plaster 
cast which he had picked up somewhere, 
and which necessitated a great deal of pack- 
ing-stuff to keep it from breaking, Tekla 
never would have found the paper. Then, 
too, she never would have found the paper 
if Michael had been about the place on the 
afternoon the box came. But he was n’t, and 
Miss Esther was impatient. The box had to 
be unpacked, so she and Tekla, armed with 
a hatchet, a screw-driver, and a monkey- 
wrench, went at it. 

“ I expect it ’s broken,” said Miss Esther, 


e ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

after the protecting boards had been re- 
moved, with that lack of dexterity but deter- 
mined effectiveness which characterizes the 
carpenter work of the average woman; “ I 
have no doubt it’s broken all to pieces.” 

“ Yes ’m, I suppose it is ; they always are,” 
said Tekla, cheerfully, as she pulled out the 
bunches of paper which were stuffed about 
the cast. 

“ It was packed carefully enough,” said 
Miss Esther. 

“Yes, indeed, ma’am. They must have 
used all the papers they had saved up for 
housecleaning time. I don’t know what 
they’ll have left to put on their pantry 
shelves.” 

“ I ’m glad they did; this is a specially fine 
cast, and I do hope it is n’t broken. It looks 
as if it were, though.” 

Miss Esther took hold of the end of the 
cast and tried to lift it out. She succeeded 
in extricating it from the mass of papers and 
carried it off in triumph. 

Tekla brought a basket and began picking 
up the crumpled papers from the kitchen 
2 


< H=' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

floor. Some large figures on one bit caught 
her eye. 

“ ‘ Circulation yesterday, 840,327/” she 
read; “must have used ’em all.” 

She went on picking up the papers, care- 
fully smoothing out those pieces which she 
believed might be of use for such purposes 
as suggest themselves to the careful house- 
wife. “ I wish,” she thought, “ that they 
hadn’t crumpled these things up so much. 
They might just as well have left them flat. 
We could have used them then.” 

At the very bottom of the box she found 
several voluminous Sunday newspapers that 
apparently had never been opened. “At 
least here’s a few smooth ones,” she con- 
tinued with a satisfied air. 

As she laid them aside, a conspicuous 
picture attracted her attention. “ That,” said 
Tekla, after a long, steady stare at it, “ is the 
kind of place I ’m going to live in. There 
should be cows — yes — like those,” and she 
held the picture at arm’s length. “ Chickens 
— yes — and dogs. Some calves, maybe, and 
pigeons and pigs, the same like those ! Ah ! ” 

3 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Again she held the picture out before her 
and gazed at it. “ It is all there, all — but 
the man — not ! ” 

Taking down the big shears from their 
nail, Tekla cut out the picture and pinned 
it up above the kitchen table. “ But I will 
have the cow-sheds nearer the house,” she 
said as she turned away. “They are not 
handy, so.” 

In the household of Miss Esther Adams, 
a Sunday newspaper was almost an unknown 
quantity. To Tekla the discovery of three 
or four complete sheets, with all the various 
“sections” carefully put together, was an 
event of thrilling importance. She hurried 
through her work, and sat down that even- 
ing to enjoy without interruption the unex- 
pected windfall. 

By a slow and laborious process of elim- 
ination she laid aside the primarily colored 
pages, the reproduced photographs, the 
editorial sections, and other interesting but 
unbelievable stories, and reserved only the 
advertisements. 


4 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

These she read eagerly, marking with 
her pencil such pictured glories of feminine 
apparel as appealed to her somewhat bar- 
baric taste. 

Idly scanning one of the more uninterest- 
ing looking pages, she chanced upon a sort 
of advertisement which seemed to her to be 
wholly new. Nothing like it had ever fallen 
under her observation. 

SPINSTERS ATTENTION! 

Why remain unappropriated blessings ? Why 
waste your sweetness on the desert air? 
Somewhere there is a heart that beats for 
you alone. He may be on our list. We 
have bankers, brokers, clergymen, lawyers, 
merchants, farmers, — 

“ Farmers! ” said Tekla, thoughtfully. 

— machinists, carpenters, masons, and others. 
Every one of our clients is a worthy, honor- 
able gentleman who wants a wife. If you 
will send $i and your photograph, we will 
enter your name upon our records. 

Tekla read and re-read this advertisement. 
u Only a dollar, — that is not so much. 
And they said farmers.” 


5 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

She raised her eyes to the picture she 
had pinned up on the wall. 

“ A farm — and a farmer, and some cows 
yet, and chickens. A house like that, and 
two pigs and two horses and a kitchen all 
over white paint — with a yellow floor — ” 

She hesitated, looked at the picture again 
doubtfully, and continued. “ It stands in the 
advertisement that there should be a farmer. I 
I will do it! I will send yet one dollar.” 

Tekla had lived under the influence df 
Miss Esther so long that whatever she 
did was more or less tinged with the old- 
fashioned fineness which characterized 
her large-hearted, gentle-minded mistress. 
Therefore, after a considerable amount of 
earnest effort, she produced this letter: 


Whitfield, June 8th. 

Dear Sir, — I have read your advertise- 
ment and would say that I inclose herewith 
one dollar. Please enter my name on your 
records, and I would like a farmer. 

The farm must contain many acres, also 
many cows, pigs, sheep, and a donkey. But 
6 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

there must be no bees, as I do not enjoy 
stinging. 

I have never lived on a farm, but I have 
a picture of one, and I am sure it will be 
good. I have lived with Miss Esther for 
seven years and she has trusted me with the 
care of her large house, and she says I am 
too good for James, who drives for the 
Doctor. 

So please, Dear Sir, if among your worthy 
and honorable gentlemen there is a farmer 
with a farm which I have described, I 
should be glad to hear from you by return 
of post. 

Yours to Command, 

Tekla Klein. 

P. S. — My Mother is dead. 

Tekla carefully copied the address given 
in the advertisement, folded her letter, and 
inclosed it in the envelope. Then she took 
from the top drawer of the old dresser, which 
stood in the kitchen closet, a new dollar bill, 
which Major Bradford had given her on his 
last visit. That was the day, Tekla remem- 

7 


e= ^ J THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

bered, when she had taken particular pains 
with the brushing of his uniform — it was 
the day of the dedication of the soldiers’ 
monument She regarded the new bill with 
real affection. She had had it more than a 
year. For a moment she hesitated. What if 
the farmer were not forthcoming in response 
to her request? But before her hung the 
picture of the farmhouse, the horses, cows, 
chickens — not one single bee was visible. 

Tekla’s sense of justice was such that she 
felt a certain responsibility to Miss Esther 
for the spending of her wages, but surely, 
she thought, with this particular dollar she 
had every right to do as she chose. 

Therefore, trusting that the end would 
justify the means, she neatly folded the bill 
and placed it carefully with the letter in 
the already stamped and addressed envelope, 
and sealed it. 

And so, as we said at first, if Lieutenant 
Adams had not sent the cast to his cousin, 
and if Michael had not been absent the day 
it came, and if Miss Esther had not in her 
impatience insisted upon Tekla’s opening the 
8 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ 

box, the little German girl would not have 
seen the picture of her farm, the letter would 
not have been written, Adolf Hecksher would 
never have come to Whitfield, this story 
would never have been written — and what 
would you have done then? 


II 


This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake 
our tyring-house ; and we will do it in action. — Midsummer 
Night's Dream. 

How the town came to be named Whitfield 
nobody who was fortunate enough to live 
there could remember, even if ever there 
had been any accurate information on the 
subject. The town was as old as those 
others in central and southern New York 
which are still worrying along under the 
burden of names bestowed upon them by 
that band of surveyors who, fresh from the 
schools where they had learned much of 
the history of ancient cities, had christened 
the still unpopulated quarter sections with 
the names of classic heroes, states, and bat- 
tles. Utica, Syracuse, Troy, Palmyra, Cicero, 
Manlius, Sparta, Homer, Ovid, Ithaca, — 
these towns, it had been hoped by their 
sponsors in baptism, might grow up to be 
a credit to their distinguished namesakes. 
Whitfield may have been named for an 

IO 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU e= ^ 

eminent Methodist clergyman. Or possibly 
not. And it did n’t matter anyway. 

Whitfield was like a hundred other towns 
of its sort. One may find the sort in almost 
any state except perhaps Arizona. It had 
an escape about three miles wide from 
being on the railroad, and in consequence 
there was little manufacturing. There was 
a long street which ran out at both ends of 
the town and got lost somewhere in the 
country. This street was cut at right angles 
by another of less pretension. Both streets 
were bordered by great old trees, maples 
and elms and an occasional hickory, which 
had been left from the days when there had 
been a forest thereabouts. Looking at the 
town from the surrounding hillsides, these 
trees shut out all view of the houses, but 
when the casual visitor arrived in the village 
he found that they merely shaded them, and 
they were grateful. There were other streets 
in the village, and according to the census 
reports Whitfield had a population of 896, 
but that was before the Henderson twins 
were born, and before the Richardsons — 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU *!§=' 

eight of them — had moved into the Bradley 
house. Of course, this increase had been 
offset somewhat by the death of Kirk Buck- 
ley, who in a moment of temporary inebri- 
ety had walked one dark night into Deacon 
Wilson’s stone quarry, with a fatal result. 

So Whitfield had remained for some years 
practically stationary as to population. It was 
a quiet, orderly, rather dignified town. Its 
officials took it seriously. Casual visitors, 
who were entirely unsympathetic because 
they had been born in cities, were apt to 
smile a little at its peculiarities, which were 
not peculiarities, but only the natural out- 
pourings of a heart interested in the doings 
of whosoever came within the line of vision. 
That was, and is to this day, the Whitfield 
of this story. 

At one corner of the long street and the 
shorter one which intersected it stood the 
Adams house. When it had been built, a 
century before, the Putnam Adams who 
built it had called the place Elmwood, but 
the name had been forgotten. The house 
itself showed that essential severity which 
12 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

characterized the Adamses, and was the pride 
of all Whitfield. It reproduced, as well as 
wood and white paint could do so, the de- 
velopment of the classic impulse which had 
its beginnings in eastern New York at the 
time when Sir William Johnson was made 
colonel of the Six Nations. 

The broad, low pediment set squarely 
upon four Ionic columns, the wide stone 
veranda and massive stone steps were as 
much a part of the landscape as the historic 
Whitfield elms. The interior of the house 
reflected the Adams attitude of mind and 
action. There were few curves in the dec- 
orations. The white-painted panels were 
uncompromisingly square. The mahogany 
balustrade ran straight up from the broad 
hall, and the stairs opened frankly at the 
top into the wide corridor which cut the 
upper floor into two halves, — five rooms 
on one side, five on the other, all precisely 
similar in size and shape. Every line which, 
architecturally, had to do with the making 
of the house, was straight up and down or 
straight across. There were no angles but 

13 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

right ones. There were no curves except 
those of the Ionic columns, and Colonel 
Adams had said after the house was built 
that he even wished he had made these 
square. But it was too late, and to-day in 
Whitfield these same columns stand, a last- 
ing monument to the one weakness of de- 
cision in the character of Colonel Putnam 
Adams, of His Majesty’s forces in the 
Colonies. 

But there was one other monument — the 
library. 

While the library as it exists now could 
not, in the very nature of things, have been 
built entire by the first Putnam Adams, 
yet he laid the foundation for it; and when 
he was sent to America by the king, and 
found a place where he was to build his 
home, he fetched with him from England 
the library which he had collected in France 
and Italy and Germany. Begun with little 
thought as to its ultimate fate, this collection 
of books had grown with the changing tastes 
of the young soldier. There were the classics 
in original and translation ; much Greek 
H 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

poetry, a wonderful edition of Horace, picked 
up in Rome, and bound in leather and gold, 
which bore the magic signature, deeply 
wrought, of Leonardo da Vinci. Then there 
was a Machiavelli and the stories of his 
wars and his methods of statesmanship; 
there was the story of the Life, which Ben- 
venuto Cellini himself had written, and this 
book the Colonel had caused to be inclosed 
in a case of silver which bore upon its cover 
the arms of the House of the Cenci. This 
book he worshiped with a worship which 
was little short of idolatry. In the long 
evenings, when the Indians were at rest 
and the messages from Sir William were 
such as to allow him some freedom, he 
would shut himself in his rooms — wher- 
ever he might be — and sit the whole night 
through, living again with the Benvenuto 
those fearsome hours when he fought his 
way through the streets of Florence, leav- 
ing in his wake a line of fourteen dead men’s 
bodies — but rushing on to his Art and his 
Love. 

Perhaps, after all, that was why Colonel 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

Putnam Adams decided on the curves for the 
capitals of the columns which guarded the 
entrance to the home which he had built for 
Margery, the daughter of the governor of 
Plymouth Colony. 

The second Putnam Adams inherited his 
father’s tastes and spent much of his time 
among the books, eagerly adding to the 
shelves such volumes as his somewhat 
limited opportunities made possible. 

Miss Esther’s father, the third Putnam 
Adams, enlarged the collection still further, 
for in his time the flood of literature which 
marked the Victorian era had already begun. 
He acquired not only valuable classics, as 
had his ancestors, but also contemporary 
fiction, essays, and poetry. 

The wife of the third Putnam Adams died 
when Esther was a baby, and the child grew 
up in the great house with only her father 
for guide, counselor, and friend. He was 
a silent man, — not stern with his little 
daughter, but maintaining the uncompro- 
mising dignity of the Adams family. He 
spent his days in the library, and Esther was 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

allowed to stay there only on condition that 
she should not speak to him when he was 
reading. Often the child would stand wist- 
fully waiting until he should lay down his 
book. But often he would do so only to take 
up another, and Esther would turn hopelessly 
away to amuse herself. Her amusements 
were peculiarly her own, and were not those 
which would have been considered enter- 
taining by most children. She invented her 
own games. For the lonely child there was 
a certain fascination about a crowd of people, 
and her games always included certain 
strange individuals, who, though invisible 
to others, were very real to her. She peopled 
the stairs with vast armies marching valiantly 
up the hill and down again; she crowded 
the parlors with squires and dames of high 
degree, who danced minuets of great intri- 
cacy, bowing gallantly and languidly waving 
feathered fans. 

The old Adams stables she filled with 
palfreys and milk-white steeds, and the barn- 
yard with peacocks and falcons. In the grass 
plot in front of the house Esther could see 

l 7 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

a sun-dial where she fully expected in some 
year to come to hold tryst with a lover 
who should wear a velvet cloak and a curl- 
ing feather, and who would say “ Parting is 
such sweet sorrow, that I could say good- 
night till it be morrow,” and then would 
kiss her hand — just as Romeo did in the 
wonderful old engraving in the Gilbert 
Shakespeare. 

Thus Esther Adams grew up. She went 
through the Whitfield school as a matter of 
course, but her tasks were easily learned and 
her school life was casual and perfunctory 
and quite outside the sentient part of her 
being. She lived in “ that land where Rosa- 
lind and Imogen are — a Paradise apart.” 
The woodland about the old place was the 
Forest of Arden. The bank of the brook 
formed the shores of Illyria where the mu- 
sicians played before the duke, and where 
Esther played the part — yes, lived the part 
— of Viola, and told to the wondering birds 
how she was letting concealment feed on her 
damask cheek. 

Instead of these fancies passing away, later 
18 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

years brought to Esther Adams a stronger 
sense of reality in her dreams, and she but 
the more thoroughly identified herself with 
the creatures which her imagination had 
appropriated. Through girlhood to woman- 
hood she lived Romance, sometimes as Rosa- 
lind, sometimes as Iseult, and sometimes, 
when in desperate mood, as Catherine of 
Medici. 

But though the grass plot and the stairs 
had certain advantages of stage-setting, yet 
it was in the library that Esther gave her 
fancy fullest rein. The reason for this was 
too subtle to be understood by the child; 
but she had an inexplicable, intangible 
sense of the atmosphere of the books. As 
she grew older, this became clear to her, 
and she enjoyed her library with the defin- 
ite knowledge of the satisfaction to be de- 
rived from the actual physical presence of 
books. 

For forty-five years she had enjoyed this 
library, as she believed, as much as was 
possible for her, without quite realizing that 
there was a sense of restraint in the presence 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

of her father. Though she adored the silent 
man and gladly submitted to his mandates, 
the restrictions placed upon her as a child 
were never removed until the day of her 
father’s death, and it was not until after that 
event that she came to know what freedom 
from even unconsciously obeyed authority 
meant. And in the ten years since she had 
invested the room with more of her own 
personality, and instead of being as it had 
been before, merely a library, it was now 
her home. 

Although always surrounded by her un- 
real associates, for the last seven years Miss 
Esther’s only human companion had been 
Tekla, the maid, and Tekla was very human. 
When she came to live at the Adams house, 
Miss Esther was shocked at her deplorable 
ignorance, and immediately began to teach 
her at least the rudiments of an education. 
The good lady consciously and laboriously 
taught her charge reading and writing, but 
far more easily yet, she unwittingly instilled 
in Tekla’s mind a romantic sort of fancy not 
unlike her own. And that ’s how it happened 
20 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

that Tekla’s stolidly practical German adapt- 
ation of Miss Esther’s ideas clothed the 
problematical farmer with a reality only 
second to Miss Esther’s Romeos. 


Ill 


But where is Kate ? where is my lovely bride ? 

— Taming of the Shrew. 

Not that Miss Esther had preferred imagin- 
ary Romeos. Imagination was all very well 
in its place, but she would have gladly wel- 
comed a hero who could have spoken his 
own lines. Although she had never con- 
sciously or definitely wished for a husband, 
yet she had often felt the lack of that com- 
panionship which she knew could only be 
afforded by association with one whose men- 
tality was equal to her own, whose tastes 
were congenial, and whose temperament was 
similar. 

Without reflection upon her own sex, but 
with total indifference to the lack of feminine 
comradeship, Miss Esther preferred mascu- 
line society. During their long and some- 
what lonely life together, her association 
with her father had been a real friendship; 
and though not a whit mannish, indeed 
22 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

being herself the essence of femininity, men’s 
traits and characteristics appealed strongly 
to Esther Adams. 

More than this, she had, and knew she 
had, the capability to be a great deal to some 
one man. Responsive, tactful, loyal, and pos- 
sessed of an instant perception, she demanded 
these qualities in the man she could love. 

No one in Whitfield had ever qualified. 

The young men who had entered into Miss 
Esther’s girlhood life were not of inferior 
mental calibre, in the opinion of the best 
Whitfield society, but owing to Esther’s 
possibly unfortunate fastidiousness, they did 
not come up to her standards. Her mentally 
intimate association with Galahad, Romeo, 
and The Admirable Crichton had made her 
exacting. It is not that she was unreasonable, 
nor did she complain; her demeanor toward 
the young men of Whitfield was marked by 
a gentle courtesy and frank good comrade- 
ship. Whitfield society did not understand 
her attitude, and could not have done so had 
she explained it to them — which she did 
not. Indeed, so misleading was her apparent 

2 3 


<1^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= %* 

acceptance of their attentions, that more than 
one young man had put himself in a position 
to receive her gracious but decided refusal. 

Through her girlhood years Miss Esther 
had thought it not impossible that she might 
yet meet a man who would be the realization 
of her ideals. But no strangers ever came 
to Whitfield, and her filial sense of duty 
would not allow her to leave her father 
alone, so she could not accept invitations to 
visit elsewhere, which would otherwise have 
given her great pleasure. Major Adams was 
so deeply occupied with his books that it 
never occurred to him that his daughter 
needed a change, or recreation of any sort 
other than that which was offered at home, 
although had she asked to go he would have 
gladly given consent. It had never occurred 
to him, either, but that she would sometime 
make a choice among the men of Whitfield, 
for he knew nothing of his daughter’s ideals 
and was himself amply content with the 
society of his native town. 

Once, when Whistler was shooting at a 
Scotch country place, he deliberately shot 
24 


* 7 $* THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

a dog which was standing near by. Because, 
as he afterward explained, the dog was out 
of drawing. He should have been twenty 
feet further to the left, if in the landscape at 
all. And so it seemed to Miss Esther that 
the men who had come into her life had been 
“out of drawing.” She did not shoot them, 
but she put them out of her life as completely 
as if they had been shot. 

This state of things, however, did not 
leave Miss Esther’s life as empty as might 
have been expected. The very qualities 
which induced this lack brought with them 
their own means of fulfilling it. Although 
without any definite acceptance of these 
facts, Miss Esther went on from day to day, 
living in the way which seemed to her to 
offer the best possible selection from all that 
life had to offer. The Romeos and Galahads 
of her happy fancies came nearer the per- 
fection of her standards than did the men of 
Whitfield, and her dream-life with them 
was happier in its ideality than any real life 
she had seen. This play-life was begun 
by Esther Adams, sitting in prim frocks, 

25 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

silent, her foot tucked comfortably under her 
on the straight-backed sofa of her father’s 
library. It continued through the girlhood 
days when she was still known as Esther 
Adams ; and now, after many years, when, 
a woman of fifty, she was called Miss Esther 
by everybody in Whitfield, the gentle, gray- 
haired lady still found in the atmosphere of 
her wonderful old books the realization 
of the ideals which had been denied her 
elsewhere. 

And so this is the explanation of why 
Miss Esther Adams never married. 

One morning Miss Esther sat in her broad- 
armed veranda chair with her hands idly 
folded in her lap. She rocked slowly as she 
gazed across the lawn at the riotous rose- 
garden. 

“Ay, ’tis as thou sayest, Rosalind ; the 
blossoms be o’er-blown. They ought to have 
been cut earlier. They are really of no use 
now except to make potpourri. Heigh-ho, 
Rosalind, I wonder if your roses in the 
Forest of Arden ever bothered you as much 
as mine do me.” 

26 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Miss Esther’s attention was attracted from 
the roses by a stranger within her gates. 
This was an unusual occurrence ; even more 
so in that this stranger was a man. And he 
was big and broad and black-bearded, and 
distinctly of Teutonic origin. His air was 
assured, yet deferential, and he approached 
the house with the look of one who was 
certain of a waiting welcome. 

“ He looks like Thor,” said Miss Esther, 
critically, “ but I never saw a brunette Thor 
before.” 

With the pleasant manner of childlike 
confidence characteristic of the people of 
his country, he said : 

“ Is this Tekla Klein’s house?” 

“ No, — not exactly — ” 

“That is too bad. I wished to marry 
her.” 

“ Is that so ? ” said Miss Esther, with 
interest. “ In that case perhaps I had better 
call her.” 

“ If you will be so kind.” 

The big man seated himself on the lowest 
of the stone steps, removed his wide-brimmed 

2 7 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

hat, and calmly wiped his forehead with 
a huge handkerchief. 

Miss Esther looked at her brunette Thor 
steadily, with a dawning appreciation that 
here at last she was confronted by a dramatic 
situation quite to her taste. She went into 
the house and into the library. She rang the 
bell and in a moment Tekla appeared. 

“ There is a person inquiring for you at 
the front door,” said Miss Esther. 

“ Yes, ma’am,” said Tekla. 

The stranger had not moved since Miss 
Esther went into the house, but at the sound 
of a footstep behind him he rose and went 
up the steps to where Tekla Klein stood by 
one of Putnam Adams’s fluted pillars. 

He took a letter from his pocket, and she 
saw that it was the one which she had writ- 
ten in answer to the advertisement. 

“ I have come,” he said, simply. 

Tekla looked at him critically, and then 
with an air of satisfaction she said, “ It is 
good. And you have the farm ? ” 

“Yes, a half-section, many — three hun- 
dred and twenty acres — one hundred 
28 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU * 1 ^ 

wheat, one hundred corn, one hundred and 
twenty in pasture.” 

“ Is it in America? ” asked Tekla. 

“It is in Nebraska,” he replied. 

“Oh! I would rather it had been in 
America. But it does not matter. I will 
go.” 

Again the pleased smile broke over the 
big, good-natured face. 

“ I was born near Breslau. I am a Ger- 
man. I have lived in America fifteen years 
— ten years in Nebraska. I own my farm 
there, and my cattle. I am thirty-five years 
old. My name is Adolf Hecksher.” 

“Adolf is a nice name,” said Tekla. 

“Yes, it is a good name. It was my 
father’s. Can you go soon ? ” 

“Yes, soon; but first I must tell Miss 
Esther. She will not be pleased.” 

“ She will miss you ? ” 

“ Yes, I have lived with her for seven 
years, and she has been very kind to me.” 

“ But she will let you go ? ” 

“ Oh, yes; I will go. Come with me and 
we will tell her together.” 


29 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Leading her big captive, Tekla went 
straight to the library. Miss Esther smiled at 
the pair as they entered, and said indulg- 
ently, “Well?” 

“ He has come to marry me,” said Tekla. 

“ So he told me,” said Miss Esther. 
“Who is he?” 

“I am Adolf Hecksher — ” began the 
accepted suitor. 

“ And he has three hundred and twenty 
acres,” interrupted Tekla, “and he wants to 
marry me.” 

“ I understand that,” said Miss Esther, 
“ but where did you find him or where did 
he find you ? ” 

“ It was an advertisement,” said Tekla, 
“and — ” 

“What!” exclaimed Miss Esther, “you 
answered an advertisement? a matrimonial 
advertisement! ” 

“ It was in one of those papers Lieutenant 
Adams sent with the cast,” asserted Tekla, 
“ and it cost but a dollar.” 

Miss Esther smiled. “ He ’s big enough 
to be worth it,” she said. 

30 


the matrimonial bureau ^ 

“ Yes, ma’am,” and Tekla looked at the 
giant beside her, “ he is.” 

“ But I don’t understand,” pursued Miss 
Esther. “ Did that dreadful matrimonial 
agency send this man to you? Have you 
ever seen him before ? Do you know who 
he is ? ” 

“ Yes,” said Tekla; “he is Adolf Heck- 
sher” 

“You are a little fool,” said Miss Esther. 
“ Leave the room and I will talk with your 
Adolf Hecksher myself.” 

Tekla left the room, smiling. Miss Esther 
invited her guest to be seated, and in the 
next half hour satisfied herself from the cre- 
dentials which he produced in the shape of 
savings-bank books, deeds of property, and 
a draft which he had received from the last 
lot of cattle which had been shipped to 
Chicago, that he was at least in a position 
to take care of a wife. She promised to 
communicate with the people whom he had 
named as references in the little Nebraska 
town where he lived. This matter being 
disposed of, Miss Esther again rang the bell 

3i 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

for Tekla. “ It is all right,” she said, “ and 
you may ask Mr. Hecksher to stay to dinner 
with you if you wish.” 

“ Yes, ma’am,” said Tekla. 

As Miss Esther passed through the kitchen 
shortly before dinner, Tekla showed her 
the picture she had cut from the paper. 

“ That is what my farm will be like,” she 
said. “ There will be cows and sheep and 
many, many acres — and Adolf.” 

Miss Esther returned to the veranda. “ It 
is very nice for them,” she thought; “but 
where can I find another Tekla ? ” 


IV 


Did you ever see the picture of we three ? — Twelfth Night . 

After several trials Miss Esther succeeded 
in obtaining a maid who, while she was not 
another Tekla, seemed capable of following 
in her footsteps. In most respects the new 
maid was competent and satisfactory, but in 
the matter of afternoon tea Miss Esther had 
found some difficulty in having her instruc- 
tions rightly carried out. Afternoon tea was 
rather unusual in Whitfield, except as a 
special function. It was only at the Adams 
house that tea was served every afternoon 
at five o’clock, whether guests were present 
or not, but the custom appealed to Miss 
Esther because in the English novels she had 
read it had been such an attractive feature. 
Consequently tea was served every day at 
five o’clock — in winter in the library, and 
in summer on the veranda. 

The mistress of the house was punctilious 
as to the appointments of her tea service, and 

33 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

Tekla, who was after all but a reflection of 
Miss Adams, had found no difficulty in 
pleasing her. But Nora, the new maid, 
had not yet learned to appreciate the vital 
importance of synchronizing the time and 
the tea. 

As a consequence of this, Miss Esther had 
sometimes to arrange or rearrange her own 
tea-table. And so when Jean Richards came 
flying across the lawn one warm afternoon, 
she found Miss Esther fussing over her 
alcohol lamp with her usual calm a little 
bit ruffled. 

“Tea ready?” she called out. 

“No, it is not. That good sister in the 
kitchen is making a bondmaid and a slave of 
me. She has n’t toasted the muffins.” 

“ Let me take them out and toast them.” 

“No, you can’t. They’re already but- 
tered.” 

“Oh, well, never mind. We’ll eat them 
as they are. What are you playing to-day. 
Miss Esther?” 

“ To-day I am Katherine. Nora is enough 
to make a shrew of anybody.” 

34 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < ^ s ' 

“ Well, I ’m sure you ’re Bonny Kate, and 
not Kate the Curst May I take this chair or 
is Petruchio sitting in it?” 

“ He has already risen, that you may have 
it. Sit down.” 

Jean sat down suddenly, as she always did 
everything, and took her cup of tea from 
Miss Esther. 

“ This is the very nicest part of the day’s 
work,” she said, “ drinking tea here with 
you. I wonder if the other girls are com- 
ing.” 

“ I hope so,” said Miss Esther; “ I have n’t 
seen Helen for a week.” 

“ Helen’s got the blues,” said Jean. “ She’s 
had ’em for three days.” 

“ What’s the matter this time?” asked 
Miss Esther; “ or is she just having the blues 
from a sense of duty ? ” 

“ That’s it,” said Jean, cheerfully. "It’s 
her make-up, you know. She has to have 
the blues about once in so often to live up to 
that temperament of hers. I ’m glad I have n’t 
any.” 

"Yes. It is a fearful thing to have to 

35 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

entertain a temperament. Don’t ever acquire 
one, Jeanie.” 

“No, ma’am,” said Jean, submissively; “I 
would n’t have one of the ridiculous things. 
People don’t like people with temperaments.” 

“Nonsense,” replied Miss Esther; “every- 
body likes Helen.” 

“ Not as much as they like me,” said Jean, 
comfortably sipping her tea. 

“Well, if they don’t,” said Miss Esther, 
stoutly, “ it is Helen’s own fault. She likes 
so few people.” 

“That’s just what I said; and that’s the 
fault of her everlasting temperament.” 

Jean leaned back in her chair and happily 
munched her untoasted muffin. 

“Now just look at the two of them,” 
she said, as two girls came in at the gate. 
“ Could n’t you tell at a glance which one has 
the blues? Helen looks as though she owned 
all the indigo mines in India, or wherever it 
comes from. Anybody could see, though, 
that Lillian has n’t a blue to her name.” 

But if Helen Fairbanks had the blues they 
were certainly rather becoming to her than 
3 6 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

otherwise. As she approached the house, 
trailing her parasol listlessly along the walk, 
she was apparently paying no attention to 
her companion, who was pointing enthusi- 
astically toward the distant landscape. 

Helen Fairbanks’s sponsors in baptism had 
disagreed as to the child’s name. Her father 
had insisted on Pearl, but her mother had 
finally carried the day, and had given to her 
daughter the only name which absolutely 
fitted her. Tall, fair, graceful, statuesque, 
Helen Fairbanks’s beauty was of that classic 
perfection which is inevitably associated with 
the name of Helen. Her large, calm, gray 
eyes which had never yet lived up to the 
possibilities of their dark lashes, her golden 
hair which she wore a bit too smooth, her 
mouth which showed all too seldom the 
little curves at its corners, were trustworthy 
indexes of her beautiful but cold nature. Miss 
Esther had said of Helen that she reminded 
her of Cassius: 

“ Seldom he smiles ; and smiles in such a sort, 

As if he mock'd himself, and scorn’d his spirit 
That could be mov’d to smile at any thing.” 

37 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

As for Lillian Hastings, she was as unlike 
Helen as Helen was unlike Jean. But the 
three were united in their friendship for each 
other and their admiration of Miss Esther, 
which amounted almost to adoration. Lil- 
lian was an artist; that is, she was by every 
implication of her being, by every wish and 
desire of her soul, and by every intent of her 
strong and somewhat stubborn character. 
The mere fact that owing to limited oppor- 
tunities she had not as yet achieved much 
on canvas, in no way contradicts the state- 
ment that she was an artist. She had spent 
two blessed weeks one summer at Shinne- 
cock, and there fallen under the direction of 
Chase and his associates. There the impulse 
had its beginnings — possibly from the in- 
spiration of the instructors, possibly because 
of the fact that she met there other girls 
who, so they had told her, could paint no 
better than she did when they began, but 
who now, after three years of work, had had 
the distinction of really selling a picture. So 
her ambition formed itself into an absolute 
mania for definite accomplishment. 

38 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

During those two weeks a great artist 
had asked her to pose for him, and he had 
painted her portrait. “ Gad ! ” he had said 
to his friends, afterward, “ she’s built like a 
greyhound. Her figure is the figure of a girl 
of eight — grown up. Her hair is Burne- 
Jones’s ladies’ hair, and her complexion — 
well, I tried to paint it here, but I have n’t 
got the transparency of it yet.” 

“ Who is this paragon ? ” his friends had 
asked him. 

“ By George ! ” he exclaimed, “ I forgot 
to ask her name. She was just a painter 
girl, working with the others down there on 
Peconic Bay.” 

And so Lillian had kept on painting. She 
had a studio which was an honest work- 
room, without draperies, plaster casts, or 
cosy corners, and here she worked doggedly, 
perseveringly, and without a moment’s doubt 
as to her ultimate success. She understood 
herself. She had no false or flattering opin- 
ions of her own ability, but she was sure that 
intelligent effort, properly directed, would 
lead her eventually to the Roman Road. 

39 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“ Confide in us, Helen, dear,” cried Jean 
as the two came up the steps. “ Why so blue 
and wan, fair lady ? Is it your doll or tea-set 
that ’s broken to-day ? ” 

“Neither,” said Helen, briefly. 

“ Perhaps it ’s her heart,” suggested Lil- 
lian. 

“Not Helen’s,” returned Jean; “she 
has n’t any heart.” 

Helen sat down on the wicker settee 
beside Miss Esther, with a look of patient 
exasperation. 

“ Oh, it ’s nothing,” she said, “ only another 
proposal; that’s all.” 

“ It ’s a perfect shame,” said Miss Esther, 
“ the way those men bother you.” 

“ It is,” said Jean. “ Why don’t you hang 
out a sign, ‘No Others Need Apply’?” 

“ I think it ’s awfully hard on Helen,” said 
Lillian, sympathetically; “ she ’s so kind- 
hearted, she hates to say ‘ no ’ to a goose.” 

“ And yet they keep her saying it most of 
the time,” said Jean. 

“ Who is it this time ? ” asked Miss Esther. 

“Mr. Walker,” said Helen. 

40 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ The young man who is staying at Brad- 
street’s ? ” 

“ Yes, that pretty boy with the glasses,” 
said Jean. “ He came here for health, and 
he found Helen, and now he wants to take 
them both back to New York.” 

“ But you ’ve always said you ’d like to 
live in New York, Helen.” 

“ Yes, Miss Esther, but I did n’t mean with 
Mr. Walker.” 

“Why not? ” asked Miss Esther, straight- 
forwardly. “ Why don’t you like Mr. 
Walker?” 

“Because there’s nothing to like about 
him. He has no more to recommend him 
than — than — ” 

“Than any of the Whitfield men who 
have asked you to marry them?” queried 
Jean. 

“ Yes, that ’s exactly what I mean, Jeanie, 
as nobody knows better than you do.” 

“Yes,” said Jean, with an exaggerated 
sigh. “ I, too, have my troubles. It ’s a fear- 
ful thing, girls, to be belles of society, with 
no society to be belles of.” 




r ^> THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“And who are you, my girl,” asked Miss 
Esther, “that you scorn Whitfield society? 
Pray what sort of people would you like, if 
given your choice ? ” 

“Oh, a lot of gay people,” said Jean, “at 
some kind of a summery place, with lovely 
clothes, and hops, and bathing-suits. And 
beautiful men in white flannels, and auto- 
mobiles, and — and — everything ! ” 

“ Modest child ! With such easily gratified 
tastes, it ’s a pity they cannot be realized.” 

“ Oh, they will be, sometime,” said Jean. 
“What would you choose, Lillian?” 

“ Oh, I don’t care for a lot of people, but 
if I just had one — ” 

“ A nearer one still, and a dearer one ? ” 
asked Jean. 

“ No, what I mean is some fairy godmother 
or grandmother or great-grandmother who 
would take me abroad and let me see pic- 
tures — and paint them.” 

“ It ’s your turn next, Helen,” said Miss 
Esther. 

“I,” said Helen, slowly, “want nothing 
more nor less than a castle in Spain, but it 
42 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

must be the largest and handsomest castle 
there is in Spain, and it must be my own.” 
“Anybody there with you?” asked Jean. 
“Yes, I think so; one of Miss Esther’s 
best Galahads or Romeos.” 

“ I hope you ’ll find your castle,” said Miss 
Esther, looking at Helen with keen appre- 
ciation. “You would make an admirable 
chatelaine.” 


V 


Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, 

As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift. 

— Two Gentlemen of Verona. 

In her library that evening Miss Esther’s 
thoughts came back to Helen and her castle 
in Spain. 

“ She ought to have one,” she thought. 
“ She ’s just the girl for a castle in Spain, — 
no, not exactly in Spain, — a Joyous Gard 
would suit her better. There should be a 
maze and a pleasaunce, and a mailed knight 
should come on his charger to beg for her 
glove, that he might joust for it in the Field 
of the Cloth of Gold. She would have made 
a wonderful Iseult, with a touch of Morgan 
le Fay. She is wonderful enough as it is, and 
it is a shame that there are no available 
Apollos or Abelards or Aucassins who want 
chatelaines for their castles.” 

It is clearly to be seen that Miss Esther 
fully appreciated the fact that the ultimate 
ambition of the eternal feminine is the 
44 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

individual interpretation of that ubiquitous 
architectural structure known as a castle in 
Spain. This is distinctly opposed to the mas- 
culine attitude of mind which looks only for 
the Princess at the Window. 

Though not definitely conscious of this 
differentiation, Miss Esther was building in 
her imagination various castles for Helen, 
when it suddenly occurred to her that the 
Prince would provide the castle, could she 
but find the Prince. 

“ Tekla found her Prince for herself,” 
thought Miss Esther, smiling as she re- 
membered the big brunette Thor; “but one 
could scarcely imagine Helen applying to a 
matrimonial agency. I might apply for her, 
select a suitable Prince, and deposit him on 
her doorstep the way that Adolf man was 
dropped here.” 

The whimsical idea pleased Miss Esther’s 
fancy, and she went into it in detail. “ While 
I ’m about it,” she thought, “ I may as well 
select Princes for Jean and Lillian, too. This 
thing is not without precedent. Petruchio 
was brought and dropped at Katherine’s feet 

45 


< ‘^=» the matrimonial bureau ^ 

by outside influences. If I can help Helen, 
I ’m going to do it. If she wants a castle, 
she ’s going to have it, and if, as Tekla’s 
experience seems to prove, a matrimonial 
bureau is a necessary factor in the case — 
I ’ll be one 1 ” 

The beauty of the plan grew upon Miss 
Esther. The possibilities widened as she 
thought about it, and she grew so excited 
that she found herself walking about the 
library, peering into the bookcases and mak- 
ing quick, explosive remarks to her friends : 

“You, Henry the Eighth, you ought to 
appreciate what I’m doing! You were 
nothing but a matrimonial bureau yourself ! ” 
and she shook her fist at the worn, leather- 
backed volume. “And you, Don Quixote, 
if you had applied to a matrimonial bureau, 
you would have found your old Dulcinea 
without any trouble, and you would n’t have 
had to fight those ridiculous windmills.” 

“Yes, I’ll be a matrimonial bureau — a 
first-class one, and I ’ll apply to myself for 
Princes for those three girls — and I ’ll get 
them, too! ” 

46 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^=' 

“Dr. Isaiah Bushnell,” announced Nora, 
appearing at the library door ; “ do you want 
to see him ? ” 

“ Of course she does,” said the Reverend 
Doctor Bushnell, affably, as, rubbing his 
hands, he walked past Nora into the room. 

“ How do you do, Dr. Bushnell. Pray be 
seated. You find me very busy to-night.” 

“Ah, yes, my dear Miss Adams, ? tis a 
busy world ; but work is a blessing ; as one 
of our poets has it, ‘ ’T is better to have — 
better to have — ’ but there, I have no doubt 
you know the quotation. You are so familiar 
with the flowers of poesy.” 

“ I fear I cannot place the quotation you 
refer to,” replied Miss Esther, a little coldly. 

“ Ah, well, ? t is no matter, ’t is no matter. 
Plow often our memory fails us just as 
we need it most. It was only yesterday that 
I intended to approach you in reference to 
a most unfortunate affair which has been 
brought recently to my attention. But, ah, 
that fickle memory again. The little errand 
entirely escaped my mind, but to-night, as 
I was passing your beautiful home, and 

47 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

remembered that here dwelt the most char- 
itable of women, I said to myself, ‘ I will ask 
her ! ’ That, my dear Miss Adams, is my 
errand.” 

“Is it?” said Miss Esther; “and how 
much money do you want ? ” 

“Please do not be so abrupt, dear lady. 
Let me state the case. Let me tell you of 
the destitution — ” 

“Never mind the destitution, Dr. Bush- 
nell, I will contribute to your cause, but as 
I said, I am extremely busy this evening.” 

“Ah, yes indeed, yes indeed ! and can 
I not help you? The benefit of my wider 
experience is yours for the asking. Let me 
advise and assist.” 

“ Do,” said Miss Esther, with sudden 
cordiality. “ I should be glad of your help. 
Does your wide experience embrace the 
organization of a matrimonial agency? ” 

“ Ah, you jest,” said Dr. Bushnell, a little 
stiffly ; “ surely you cannot mean to resort to 
such methods. You, who are destined to fill 
so nobly the niche in which Providence has 
placed you ! ” 

48 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

The matter being presented to her in this 
light, Miss Esther perceived a certain humor 
in the situation that had not appealed to her 
before. 

“ Oh, if you advise against it, I will drop 
all thought of such a thing.” 

“ I do, my dear Miss Adams,” said Dr. 
Bushnell, earnestly. “ Trust to my maturer 
judgment. It would be a mistake to take 
any such step, I do assure you. As I was 
reading yesterday, in my collection of fa- 
mous poetry, ‘ ? T was ever thus — ’ ah, again 
the flowing numbers have escaped me. But 
you know — doubtless you know the lines. 
Now, as you were saying, my dear Miss 
Adams, every little counts, and your con- 
tribution will be gladly welcomed not only 
b}' myself, but by the worthy people whom 
we are endeavoring to assist. If you will 
pardon my abrupt departure, I will, upon 
the receipt of your beneficence, take my 
-leave.” 

Once again by herself, Miss Esther’s mind 
returned to her daring scheme. 

“ Let me see,” she thought, “ young Put- 

49 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < 3 = ' 

nam Adams must be about thirty now, and 
the Adamses are good enough Princes for 
anybody. I wonder how he would do for 
Helen. But no. A lieutenant in the regular 
army would never be able to provide the 
kind of a castle that ambitious girl insists 
upon. He would suit Jean better. She loves 
uniforms and a gay life; her happy disposi- 
tion would be a fair match for his. In fact, 
the more I think of it, the more appropriate 
it seems. But I have n’t seen Putnam of late. 
The last time I saw him was when he was 
graduated at West Point, and that was six 
years ago. Since then he has been stationed 
in Manila, and goodness knows where else. 
Now all this may have made a man of him, 
and then, again, it may not, but he is an 
Adams, and he has won his shoulder-straps 
since he went away, so I think the boy must 
be all right. At any rate, I will invite him 
up here. I wonder if he will come.” 

Having satisfactorily settled Jean’s future, 
Miss Esther turned her attention to the next 
name on the records of her matrimonial 
agency. 

5o 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Lillian,” she thought, “ is so different 
from Jean. She takes everything so seriously 
— even that ridiculous art of hers. Well, 
perhaps ridiculous is n’t the word, for Lillian 
is not the sort that paints calla-lilies on a 
black background. She goes only so far, but 
every step she takes is just right; the trouble 
is that ’s as far as she goes, and she never 
will get far enough to know that she can’t 
go any farther. A woman has no business 
with art, anyway. There never was one that 
did anything really worth while. I ’m glad 
nobody ’s here to say George Eliot at me, 
or Rosa Bonheur, or Chaminade. Sporadic 
instances count for nothing except to prove 
the rule. And I think that Lillian would be 
much happier married to some good, kind 
fairy godfather than going to Europe with 
some fairy godmother. 

“ But Putnam Adams would never do for 
Lillian — no, he is better for Jean. Lillian 
should have an older man — I don’t know 
why, for Lillian is no older than Jean, and 
yet it seems to me that the man who would 
be just the one for Lillian Hastings would be 

5i 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

a kind, wise, staid sort of man — who would 
guide, counsel, and befriend her, and then if 
he thought she ought to go on with her art 
work, I ? m sure Pd be perfectly willing. 
Then the responsibility of that girl would be 
off my mind. Now all I ? ve got to do is to 
find that man. I wish there had been one in 
Whitfield, but as there is n’t, I must get him 
somewhere else. It ’s positively maddening 
to think that there are probably hundreds 
of them in the world, if I only knew their 
addresses.” 

Miss Esther possessed an absurd but 
absolutely unshakable belief in the way- 
pointing possibilities of the nearest available 
piece of printed matter. 

She calmly picked up the morning paper 
with the certainty that she would find in it 
some indicating arrow pointing toward the 
material manifestation of the man whose 
image she had so clearly in her mind. It 
was part of her method to accept the first 
hint that could by any possibility be made 
available for her use as an accomplished 
fact. 


52 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < ^=' 
“ This will do nicely,” she said : — 

A PHILANTHROPIC BEQUEST 

Hiram Briggs Founds an Art School — The 
Wealthy Button Manufacturer Dedicates His 
New Edifice — Cost $500,000 — A Memo- 
rial to His Late Wife. 

— “ That ’s the one,” said Miss Esther, decid- 
edly. “ I need look no further. A man who 
is loving enough to erect such a memorial to 
his dead wife, and who is rich enough to spend 
$500,000 on it, and who is clever enough to 
have got rich on buttons, and who is sens- 
ible enough to be named Hiram Briggs, is 
just the man to take care of that artistic tem- 
perament of Lillian Hastings. He will act 
as a blender to her sharply colored views of 
life. Where does this altogether desirable 
man live? I will write to him to-night. Of 
course, Lillian may object to the buttons, 
but when she realizes Mr. Briggs’s devotion 
to Art, she will see the matter in its right 
light, I am sure.” 

Miss Esther skimmed through the article 
quickly and discovered that Mr. Briggs was 

53 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ 

a citizen of Nashua, New Hampshire. This 
was entirely satisfactory, and the further 
details of the story also confirmed her good 
opinion of the man. 

“He ought to get my letter by the day 
after to-morrow,” she thought, “ which will 
give him ample time to take Lillian abroad 
this summer. They ought to sail by the 
fifteenth of August, I should think. And 
I shall give her one of those lovely traveling- 
bags furnished with any number of silver 
things. It must be such fun to find out 
what they ’re all for, and I should think her 
honeymoon would just about give her 
time enough.” 


VI 


Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard. — Othello , 
iii, 7. 

The Matrimonial Bureau had proved 
successful in meeting the demands of two 
of its clients, but the third name on its 
records still baffled Miss Adams. It seemed 
to her that the only possible mate for Helen 
Fairbanks was a being so far above and 
beyond the ordinary mortal that it would 
be impossible to find him outside the glass 
doors of her mahogany bookcases. 

“ He might be in there,” she thought, 
looking toward a favorite corner where the 
fairy books were, “ or even in there,” she 
added, as she glanced at the Thackeray 
shelf; “ but one thing is certain, he never 
would be in a newspaper, so there ’s no 
use looking there. I suppose he ’s in the 
directory, but I don’t know what letter his 
name begins with, so I can’t find him there. 
I don’t know how I shall find him. I don’t 

55 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

believe there are many of that type of men 
in the world. The only one I ever knew 
was a woman. Cousin Emily Westcott — 
of the Chester Adams branch — is just the 
kind of person I mean. It ’s a pity she is a 
woman, though of course she is too old for 
Helen. Let me see, — Cousin Emily must 
be sixty by now; she had four boys, and 
nice, well-behaved young chaps they were. 
I wonder if they are all married. I remem- 
ber sending Roger his piece of the old 
Adams silver two years ago, and Emily 
wrote that Hugh was engaged. Still, that 
leaves two, and if they take after their 
mother they ’re just the kind of men I want. 
I will write to her, too, and I ’m sure one of 
them will be all right for Helen. They’re 
Adamses, anyway.” 

The president of the Matrimonial Bureau 
now resigned the chair in favor of the sec- 
retary, and Miss Esther began the clerical 
work. She wrote first to Lieutenant Putnam 
Adams and invited him to spend his vaca- 
tion with her that summer. “ I do not 
know,” she wrote, “ whether the state of 
56 


< ^ = ' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

the country is such as to allow officers of 
the army anything like vacations, but if 
there is any for you this summer, please 
come up and visit your old cousin. I have n’t 
seen a real live Adams for a long time, and 
I want to thank you for the cast. Even if 
your visit must be a short one, I hope you 
can come, and come soon.” 

T o her cousin Emily W estcott Miss Esther 
wrote very frankly, saying that Lieutenant 
Putnam Adams was coming to visit her, 
and asking that one of the two younger 
Westcott boys come at the same time. She 
informed Mrs. Westcott that she wished her 
to send the one who was most distinctly an 
Adams, and said further that she would trust 
the mother’s judgment in the matter. 

“ But they ’re all Adams — both of 
them!” exclaimed Mrs. Westcott, as she 
read this letter. “ I ’ll have to send them 
both! ” 

Miss Esther’s letter to Hiram Briggs, the 
philanthropist of Nashua, was a more trying 
ordeal. For once in her life she found it 
difficult to express herself, and it was nearly 

57 


the matrimonial bureau ^ 

midnight when she completed the following 
business-like if unconventional epistle : — 


Whitfield, June 22. 

Mr. Hiram Briggs, Nashua, N. H. 

Dear Sir, — I have just read in the 
morning paper an account of the art school 
which you have founded. I have been think- 
ing the matter over, for I am much inter- 
ested in such philanthropic movements, and 
I have a special reason for a peculiarly per- 
sonal interest in this one. 

It is apparent, from the facts stated in the 
account of your worthy undertaking, that 
you are an art patron, and are therefore 
alive to the possibilities in the development 
of the artistic effort. I am quite certain that 
a man with the name of Hiram Briggs, and 
who is the proprietor of a button manufac- 
tory, must be possessed of sound common 
sense and fully able to appreciate and under- 
stand the proposition which I am about to 
make. 

I have a young girl friend who believes 
that she is well on the way toward becom- 
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<= ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

ing a great artist, and who certainly has the 
artistic temperament. Her ambition is to go 
abroad for the study of art, but at present 
she has not the means to do this. 

From the fact that the praiseworthy me- 
morial which you have built must have taken 
several years to complete, I assume that 
Mrs. Briggs must have long since been laid 
to rest. My young friend is eminently fitted 
to assist in the carrying out of the plans 
which you have evidently made for this 
great work which you have begun, and fur- 
ther, her education and accomplishments 
are such as to enable her to take her place 
in any social sphere. 

I trust, my dear Mr. Briggs, that you will 
receive this communication in the spirit 
in which it is written, and if at any time 
you wish to call on me I should be pleased 
to welcome you to my home in Whitfield. 

Most sincerely yours, 

Esther Adams. 

The next morning Miss Esther was fa- 
vored with a visit from her young neighbor, 

59 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Jack Remington. Jack was a social char- 
acter and often dropped in, apparently for 
no particular reason. These fortuitous calls 
were liable to happen on baking days, or 
when he felt the need of Miss Esther’s moral 
support in his seasons of tribulation. Ten 
years old, sturdily built, stolidly minded, he 
was of the stuff of which Lincolns are made, 
rather than Michael Angelos or Robert 
Brownings. Miss Esther had been obliged 
to recognize this fact, but she still hoped to 
train his young ideas into grooves of her 
own choosing. Though as yet no visible 
progress had been made, she did not despair, 
but continued in a course which gave her 
much pleasure and did not bother Jack. 

The boy had a passion for battle-ships, and 
his highest ambition was to build one. He 
had already begun it, but obstacles often 
confronted him, and he depended on Miss 
Esther both for advice and for more mate- 
rial assistance. She did not know much 
about battle-ships, but her elementary know- 
ledge was supplemented by furtive consul- 
tations of the encyclopedia between Jack’ 
60 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

visits. Afterward, she conversed on these 
subjects with much erudition, and Jack’s 
admiration grew, for she was the only 
woman of his acquaintance who even knew 
on which end of a ship the bow was placed. 
Miss Esther really cared very little about 
the technical construction of any ship, but 
she was fond of the boy and had her own 
notions as to his future career. Of these 
notions Jack was entirely aware, but since, 
in his opinion, they were totally unnecessary 
to a builder of ships, he ignored them with 
the superiority of a ten-year-old. 

With a view to gracious influences, the 
would-be architect of Jack’s fortunes had 
endeavored to induce a friendship between 
him and a golden-haired siren of four, who 
was her neighbor on the other side. Her 
name was Amabel, but for obvious reasons 
she was known as Chub. Miss Esther’s 
efforts toward the foundation of this friend- 
ship had resulted disastrously. On their first 
introduction the children had cordially ap- 
proved of each other, and Amabel had not 
changed her mind. But just as the friendship 

6 1 


e ^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU * 1 ^ 

was ripening, Jack discovered Chub’s calam- 
itous ignorance concerning the necessity for 
guns on battle-ships. She had promised to 
sail with him on his to the great naval battle 
which he assured her was imminent. More, 
she had promised to assist in any capacity 
in the working of the ship, when, in an im- 
pulsive burst of generosity, Jack responded 
that she might man one of the guns. 

“ Gunth!” and Chub suddenly sat down 
on the floor and shrieked. Her terror- 
stricken squeals brought Miss Esther to the 
scene. She looked from the screaming baby 
on the floor to the disdainful ship-builder, 
who stood with his legs apart and his hands 
in his pockets, surveying the disturbance 
with an expression of absolute disgust. 

“ If she yells like that when I say guns,” 
said he, contemptuously, “ I wonder what 
she ’ll do when the shooting begins.” 

“Thooting! ” exclaimed Chub, her dem- 
onstrations checked for the moment, “ who 
we going to thoot? ” 

“ The enemy,” said Jack, tersely. 

“ Won’t it hurt ’em ? ” 

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“It’ll kill ’em!” 

Chub’s wails began again with redoubled 
force. “ Take her away,” said Jack. He 
turned to continue the building of his war- 
ship with the fixed resolve that henceforth 
and forever womankind should have no 
part or parcel in his life. 

But the young misanthrope made an ex- 
ception of Miss Esther Adams. He relied 
implicitly upon her knowledge and judg- 
ment, not only in nautical matters, but re- 
garding all the vicissitudes which beset his 
somewhat strenuous existence. His mother 
always accompanied the application of court- 
plaster with a reproof. When Miss Esther 
bound up his wounds, a delectable doughnut 
added largely to the healing qualities of her 
ministrations. 

On this particular morning, however, the 
doughnut was of minor importance. He ate 
it, and even abstractedly took a second one, 
but without enthusiasm. Not observing any 
necessity for sticking-plaster, Miss Esther 
concluded the distress was mental and 
awaited developments. 


63 


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Jack wriggled into one of the big veranda 
chairs opposite Miss Esther, and with his 
elbows on his knees and his chin in his 
hands stared moodily into space. Miss 
Esther waited. 

“ I got to be a minister,” he said at last. 

“ Have you, dear? When? ” 

“ Soon ’s I ’m big enough. ’T ain’t fair, 
jes’ ’s I got my ship most done, and was 
goin’ to be a sailor like Dewey or some- 
body, and now I got to be an old minister; 
mother told me so las’ night.” 

“ But perhaps you ’ll like being a minis- 
ter,” suggested Miss Esther. 

“No sirree! I bet I won’t. I know the 
stunt. I was over to Dr. Bushnell’s jes’ now, 
and I asked him what a fellow had to do to 
be a minister, but he said, don’t be ’reverent, 
little boy, and I was n’t. But I know my 
own self what they got to do. Preach and 
bury people and marry ’em and baptize 
kids and have prayer-mee tin’s and donations 
and wear high hats and never smoke nor go 
to circuses nor go in swimmin,’ — least I 
never seen Dr. Bushnell in, — and where ’s 
64 


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any fun in all that, I ’d like to know. But 
they was another man there a-visitin’ the 
minister, and he asked me what I wanted to 
be, and I told him a sailor and he said ’s 
that so. And I told him you and me was 
a-buildin’ a battle-ship and asked him to 
come over ’n see it and he said he would 
and he ’s cornin’ to-morrow mornin’ and he 
give me this card with his name on it.” 

The name on the card was 

Theodore Winthrop Brewster. 

Although the surname meant nothing to 
Miss Esther, she remembered that there had 
been a Theodore Winthrop in her mother’s 
line. “ Possibly he may be of that family,” 
she thought. 

“ I wish mother ’d let me be a sailor,” went 
on Jack, wistfully. 

“Well, wait until Mr. Brewster comes 
over here to-morrow,” said Miss Esther, 
“ and we ’ll see what he thinks about it.” 

Jack, much comforted at the thought of 
a possible escape from the reverend calling, 
went whistling to the kitchen, where he 

65 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

enjoyed another doughnut with an appetite 
unhampered by a depressed mentality. 

“ It would be strange,” said Miss Esther, 
still looking at the card she held, “if this 
man were one of our Winthrops. I don’t 
remember the Brewster connection, but I ’ll 
look it up in the book.” 


VII 


My noble and well warranted cousin. 

— Measure for Measure, v, I. 

When a telegram arrived announcing that 
Lieutenant Adams accepted his cousin’s 
invitation, Miss Esther was greatly pleased, 
and at once began a pleasant flurry of pre- 
paration for his reception. A letter following 
the next day told how exceedingly welcome 
her invitation had been, and how it was 
necessary for him to leave Fort Monroe on 
sick leave for a time. “Your letter,” he 
wrote, “ could not have reached me at a 
time when the prospect of a few weeks in 
the country was more attractive. In working 
out on the ramparts where we have been 
taking down the old guns, I slipped, and 
broke my leg. I had planned to go into the 
mountains of Virginia. I have changed my 
plans. I am coming to you. All I want is 
rest in a quiet place where my foolish leg 
can get well. I have already telegraphed, 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

and I may reach Whitfield on the same day 
with this letter, for I am going north to- 
night. I can get about on crutches fairly 
well. Thank you again for the inspiration 
which led you to ask me to come.” 

Miss Esther was pleased rather than other- 
wise at her cousin’s misfortune, for she was 
a born nurse and dearly loved to fuss over 
an invalid, and, moreover, she could keep 
him longer and use him to better advantage 
in the accomplishment of her fell project. 

Miss Esther knew, however, that a broken 
leg did not necessarily affect a man’s appe- 
tite, so she enjoyed stocking her larder with 
the lavishness which always characterized 
her hospitality. It was in the midst of 
these preparations that a letter arrived from 
Nashua. 

Nashua, N. H., June 24. 

Miss Esther Adams, 

Dear Madam, — Mr. Briggs received 
your letter yesterday, and wishes me to 
thank you for your kind words. He es- 
pecially appreciates your commendation of 
his philanthropic efforts, and wishes all 
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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

success to your young friend in her pursuit 
of art. 

He regrets his inability to accept your 
kind invitation to call on you at Whitfield, 
and assures you that he received your pro- 
position quite in the spirit in which it was 
written. 

Mr. Briggs and myself have just returned 
from our wedding trip, and unite in sending 
you hearty good wishes for the future suc- 
cess of your own philanthropic plans. I am, 
my dear Miss Adams, 

Very sincerely yours, 

Emmeline Fisher Briggs, 
(Mrs. Hiram Briggs.) 

“Just returned from their wedding jour- 
ney!” exclaimed Miss Esther. “I should 
have written Mr. Briggs at least two months 
ago. Well,” she went on, cheerfully, “ I 
must get somebody else for Lillian. And 
it’s just as well, too, for 6 Lillian Briggs’ 
was n’t a very pretty name; but I did want 
her to sail in August. I shall have to hurry. 
Let me see what I can do — ” 


69 


r ^=' the matrimonial bureau 

“ Hullo, Aunt Esther,” called Jack from 
the driveway, “ I Ve got Mr. Brewster to 
come to see the ship.” 

Miss Esther rose to greet the big blond 
man who accompanied Jack, and shook his 
hand cordially. 

“ I am assured,” began Mr. Brewster, “ by 
my young friend, Mr. Remington, that any 
friend of his is welcome at the Adams 
house.” 

“Not only that,” said Miss Esther, gra- 
ciously, “ but I have reason to think that your 
family and mine are connected, and that I 
may welcome you as a sort of relative. You 
are a Winthrop ? ” 

“ My mother was a Winthrop,” said Mr. 
Brewster, “of the Gideon Winthrop branch.” 

“ And my mother,” said Miss Esther, “was 
a Winthrop of the Wingate Winthrops. But 
of course, a few generations back they were 
identical, and I claim you as a relative.” 

“ I am very glad to be claimed,” responded 
Mr. Brewster, with a touch of foreign-man- 
nered courtesy which Miss Esther afterward 
discovered was characteristic of the man. 

70 


r ^ 5 ' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“ Providential,” thought Miss Esther. 
“ Here is Mr. Briggs’s substitute ready-made 
to my hand.” 

“ Then, Aunt Esther,” interrupted Jack, 
“ that makes Mr. Brewster my uncle, don’t 
it? And now can he go see our ship? ” 

Miss Esther acquiesced, and Mr. Brewster 
and Jack went at once to the large room on 
the second floor which had been given over 
to the young ship-builder. 

Then Nora brought the tea-table, and Miss 
Esther supervised the arrangement of her 
beloved cups and saucers, and when the two 
enthusiasts returned from the inspection of 
the ship, they found the hostess surrounded 
by three chattering girls. 

“ Hullo, Jean! ” cried Jack, “ come on up 
and see my ship.” 

“ Is the rudder working properly yet?” 
the young lady inquired, but before he could 
answer, Miss Esther presented Mr. Brewster 
to Helen, Lillian, and Jean. 

“ I ’m so glad to meet you, Mr. Brewster,” 
exclaimed Jean. “ I ’ve been longing to meet 
you all day — ever since I saw you at the 

7 1 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

post-office this morning with Dr. Bushnell ; 
but I did n’t know you knew Miss Adams.” 

“ I did n’t until half an hour ago, but she, 
too, has been kind enough to say that she 
was glad to meet me; though she didn’t 
say she had been longing for it all day.” 

“ But she did n’t see you at the post-office,” 
said Jean. 

“No,” said Miss Esther, “but if I had I 
should n’t have waited for an introduction 
until now, for he is one of our own Win- 
throps.” 

“ I bet that ’s Cousin Putnam coming now,” 
exclaimed Jack, watching a carriage turning 
in at the gate. 

“Who ’s Cousin Putnam? ” asked Jean, as 
Miss Esther hurried down the steps. 

“ Oh,” explained Jack, ecstatically, “ he ’s 
Aunt Esther’s cousin and he ’s a lieutenant 
in the army with a uniform and a sword and 
he knows all about war and navies and ships 
and he was in Cuba with General Kent and 
he was in Manila after Dewey was there, and 
he saw Dewey once, ’cause he wrote Aunt 
Esther so, and he ’s had fights with natives 
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r |f’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < ‘^=' 

and things and he ’s going to tell me all about 
the ships, ’cause Aunt Esther said she’d 
make him, and he fell on a fort where he 
lives down South somewheres and he bust 
his leg and he ’s come here to get well — and 
everything.” Jack paused for want of further 
breath as the carriage drove up, when he 
flew down the steps exclaiming, “ Hello, 
Cousin Putnam! Why did n’t you wear your 
uniform ? ” 

Seeing Lieutenant Adams’s crutches, Mr. 
Brewster followed Jack and offered his as- 
sistance. 

Notwithstanding Lieutenant Adams’s abil- 
ity to manage his crutches, he was glad of 
Brewster’s support. Miss Esther had scarcely 
more than spoken to her cousin when she 
was surprised by seeing another carriage 
closely following the first. 

“More company! ” cried Jack. “Who is 
it, Aunt Esther? ” 

As the second carriage stopped, two young 
men jumped out, exclaiming, “ Here we are. 
Mother sent us. She said you wanted us. 
You’re our Cousin Esther, are n’t you? ” 

73 


<‘3^' the matrimonial bureau ^ 

“ Goodness! are you Emily’s boys? and 
what are the two of you doing here? ” 

“ Why you sent for us, did n’t you ? Mother 
telegraphed us to stop here on our way home. 
Did n’t you get our telegram saying we ’d be 
here to-day ? ” 

“ No, I did n’t; but I ’m just as glad to see 
you. Come right in. Which of you is Ken- 
neth? ” 

“ I am. I am Kenneth Adams Westcott, 
and he is Mark Adams Westcott. He’s a 
little older than I am, but I ’m a whole lot 
nicer than he is.” 

“ You look like the Adamses,” said Miss 
Esther, as she led the way up the steps and 
straight to the group around the tea-table. 

When Brewster reached the veranda with 
Lieutenant Adams, he suddenly realized that 
the responsibility of the hospitality of the 
house of Adams devolved upon him. He 
presented the newcomer to the young ladies 
and Jean promptly shared the honors with 
Mr. Brewster. She appropriated the bronzed 
invalid, and impressing Brewster into her 
service, she ordered from him successive 
74 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

relays of tea and muffins with which to regale 
her newly acquired subject, when she saw 
Miss Esther approaching with what seemed 
like two new worlds to conquer. 

Miss Esther introduced the Westcott boys 
to Lillian and Helen, and then bringing them 
over to Jean, begged her to make tea for 
them. 

This effervescent young woman was in 
her element. With four newly made and 
evidently admiring acquaintances, she fairly 
bubbled with excitement, and wondered 
how Helen and Lillian could take it all so 
calmly. 

“It’s a funny thing,” said Miss Esther, 
looking proudly at the four young men, u to 
think that for years not a single one of my 
cousins has visited me, and now they come 
not single spies, but in battalions.” 

“ I think battalions are very nice things,” 
said Jean. 

“ So do I,” replied Miss Esther; “I only 
wish all my cousins were here.” 

u There are something like two hundred 
of them, I believe,” said Lieutenant Adams. 

75 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ( 7 ^ > 

“ Well, I don’t care; I would put up tents 
on the lawn.” 

“ Won’t you have to put up tents for us as 
it is ?” inquired Kenneth Westcott. “You 
seem to have had an unexpected avalanche 
of relatives to-day.” 

“Oh, no, indeed,” replied Miss Esther. 
“ The Adams house has plenty of room, and, 
too, Mr. Brewster is not staying here. He ’s 
a guest of Dr. Bushnell.” 

“ Is this a surprise party to you as well as 
to us, Miss Esther ? ” asked Helen. 

“/was expected,” said Lieutenant Adams; 
“ these other scions of the house of Adams 
are base interlopers, but Cousin Esther wrote 
me that she specially wanted me to come, 
and I wrote her that I was coming to- 
day.” 

“ And mother telegraphed us that Cousin 
Esther specially wanted us to come,” said 
Mark, “ and we telegraphed that we were 
coming to-day.” 

“ Here comes the telegram now,” said 
Lillian, as the boy from the telegraph-office 
rode slowly up the driveway on a bicycle. 

76 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Hello, Mercury ! ” said Jean, as he dis- 
mounted from his wheel. 

“ Ah, gwan ! ” said the boy, gallantly, as 
he remounted and rode away. 

Miss Esther read the message. “ I learn 
from this,” she said, “ that my two Westcott 
cousins are coming to-day to make me a 
visit.” 

66 Then we ’re not interlopers any more ? ” 
asked Kenneth. 

“ Not at all. You are honored and ex- 
pected guests, and I hope you will stay all 
summer.” 

“ I hope so, too,” said Jean. 

When Brewster and the three girls went 
away, Lieutenant Adams said, “ Do you 
often have such tea-parties as this, Cousin 
Esther?” 

“ Nearly every afternoon,” replied Miss 
Adams. 

“ Then we ’ll all stay all summer,” ex- 
claimed the Lieutenant. 

u I want you to, anyway, Putnam ; and at 
least one of you other boys,” said Miss 
Esther. 


77 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Why can’t my little brother stay, too ? ” 
asked Mark. 

<c Oh, let ’s all stay,” said the Lieutenant, 
“ and I have a friend who’s awfully anxious 
to come to Whitfield for the summer with 
me, and he’s an all-round good fellow, too; 
besides, he has barrels of money, and he can 
sing and paint and everything.” 

“ Send for him,” said Miss Esther, in a 
sudden enthusiastic burst of hospitality. 


VIII 


And wears upon his baby brow the round and top of sov- 
ereignty. — Macbeth , iv, i. 

Not only because her Cousin Putnam was 
an Adams, but also because he was a soldier 
and an invalid, he was invested to Miss 
Esther’s mind with a certain halo of romance. 
The mere incidental fact that his injury had 
not been received on the field of battle, but 
in the more commonplace pursuit of super- 
vising the moving of certain heavy guns 
from the ramparts of Fort Monroe on a 
peaceful June afternoon, made no difference 
in her attitude toward it. She felt that a 
dearth of woman’s tears was just as pathetic 
in an accident of this sort as in the case of 
an Algiers hero, and she was resolved that 
there should be no lack of woman’s nursing 
if she had her way about it. Since he had 
decided on the career of a soldier and left 
home for West Point, Putnam Adams had 
seen enough of woman’s tears, for they were 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

not an unknown commodity in Cuba and the 
Philippines, but he had had but little experi- 
ence with the woman’s nursing part of the 
problem. His work had been cut out for 
him from the very day of his graduation, and 
when he was finally ordered home and to 
service at the artillery school at Fort 
Monroe there had been no thought but the 
accurate carrying out of the general and 
special orders of his commanding officer, 
with, back of it, the firm resolve to take his 
place at the very front rank of the profession 
which he loved with that love which comes 
through generations of trained soldiers — 
fighters. 

And now in one of Miss Esther’s dimity- 
curtained bedrooms he was receiving the 
gentle motherly care which he had never 
had since his boyhood years. She did not 
fuss over him, or at least, if she did, it was 
with that practical, sensible fussing which 
carried conviction and brought a sense of 
absolute peace and rest. 

The Westcotts were more easily disposed 
of. Miss Esther sent them off to bed 
So 


r ^= l THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

as unceremoniously as she would have done 
ten years earlier had they visited her then. 
Their rooms boasted as many dimity cur- 
tains and the wall-paper as many pink roses 
as were to be found in Putnam Adams’s 
room across the hall. But these details were 
entirely lost upon these two healthy young 
cubs whose physical prowess far outstripped 
their artistic instinct. They fell asleep with- 
out appreciating that the drapery of their 
couches was the traditional lavender-scented 
Adams linen. 

Having said good-night to her cousins, 
Miss Esther returned to her library. The 
immediate success of her plans had sur- 
passed all her expectations. Within four 
days she had gathered under her own roof 
four eligible candidates for the hands of 
the unconscious clients of her Matrimonial 
Bureau. To be sure, she had only three 
clients, but it was well to have an extra 
man in case another client presented her- 
self. 

“ It seems to me, Portia,” she said, “ that 
I have managed this thing quite as well as 

Si 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

even you could have done it. I have laid 
my plans carefully, and I feel sure that they 
will work out successfully. Putnam Adams 
is a dear, and, as I thought, he is just the 
one for Jean. Winthrop Brewster I am not 
so sure of. He must be the one for Lillian, 
for he came almost the very moment after 
I received the refusal from Hiram Briggs. 
And Mr. Brewster is apparently very intel- 
lectual, though he does n’t seem to have 
any special leaning toward art. The West- 
cott boys are all right. Either of them is 
good enough for Helen, and she can take 
her choice. I don’t suppose they have very 
large castles as yet; but the Westcott for- 
tune is great and there is plenty of time. 
Yes, things are certainly working out well. 
The Matrimonial Bureau has already proved 
its right to existence, and I shall be glad to 
see my girls married and settled.” 

With the feeling of satisfaction that comes 
from an achieved purpose, Miss Esther 
turned out the library lights and went slowly 
up the stairs. As she passed Jack’s ship- 
yard, she smiled happily. “And after the 
82 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

weddings are all over,” she said, “Jack and 
I will go on with the building of the ship.” 

On the east side of the Adams house was 
a square porch which had been built by 
Miss Esther’s father in order that he might 
have an out-of-door reading-room when the 
days of summer made it too warm to remain 
comfortably in the library. This was now 
inclosed in vines, — wistaria, honeysuckle, 
and crimson ramblers, — which gave the 
place a frisky appearance quite in contrast 
to the stately effect of the stone-floored, 
white-columned front porch. 

After breakfast next morning Miss Esther 
formally transferred this desirable bit of 
property to the boys, and especially to Put- 
nam. For his especial benefit she had ar- 
ranged a big wicker lounging-chair with 
a convenient table by its side. Then there 
were rugs and hammocks, ash-trays, and 
other things supposed to be necessary to the 
comfort of the average man. Lieutenant 
Adams, who found himself after his tire- 
some journey provokingly helpless, dropped 

83 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

gratefully into his pillow-filled chair, but the 
Westcott boys promptly upset the orderly 
scheme of things which Miss Esther had so 
happily arranged during the early morning 
hours. Kenneth picked up a large palm in 
a pot which he summarily deposited on the 
lawn outside. Mark pitched the pillows out 
of the hammocks. “ There ’s no place for 
my feet,” he said. 

Much as Miss Esther had enjoyed arrang- 
ing these things for the comfort of her 
guests, she enjoyed still more their high- 
handed demolishing of that arrangement. 
“ Now have you everything you want?” 
she asked, beaming on the twelve-feet-six 
of Westcott humanity that was festooned 
end to end across the porch. 

“ All but one thing,” said Kenneth, “ and 
that’s some fishing-tackle. I want to go 
fishing.” 

“ But there ’s no place to fish.” 

“ That does n’t make any difference. I 
don’t want to fish; I just want to go fishing, 
and so I want some tackle and bait and 
a creel and a pair of hip-boots.” 

S 4 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ There is a little bit of a brook that runs 
through the east meadow,” said Miss Esther, 
thinking hard in her endeavor to provide 
what was wanted. “ But there are no fish 
in it that I know of.” 

“ That will do nicely, thank you. Of 
course, I would have preferred something 
with tarpon in it; but a brook is a brook, 
after all. Where are the things ? ” 

“ Father used to have all those things. 
They ’re in the big attic now. I ’ll go and 
get them.” 

“ Not on your life you won’t! ” And Ken- 
neth bounced out of the hammock, picked 
Miss Esther up bodily and carefully depos- 
ited her in his place, tucking some pillows 
about her feet. “ I ’ll get them myself. You 
stay right there. Watch her, fellows! ” 

The screen door slammed behind him 
and Kenneth went in search of his fishing- 
tackle. He returned triumphantly with the 
hip-boots and much other paraphernalia 
which he scattered over the floor, chairs, 
and also over his hostess, whom he decor- 
ated with red and yellow trout flies. Even 

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after the good lady had escaped and unwill- 
ingly obeyed Nora’s summons to the kitchen, 
Kenneth was still fussing with his flies. 

“By Jove!” exclaimed Putnam, looking 
down across the lawn, “ what a picture ! ” 
Kenneth paused, and, looking through a vine- 
framed opening, saw an exceeding fat baby 
propelling herself on all-fours through a too- 
small aperture in the boxwood hedge. Half- 
way through she had paused perforce and 
beamed contentedly. Then redoubling her 
efforts she wriggled through the rest of the 
way, stood upright and carefully brushed the 
dirt from her tiny skirts, and started toward 
the house. She walked deliberately, as one 
with a set purpose. At a rose-bush a few 
feet from the hedge she stopped, kissed 
one of the roses, patted another lovingly, 
clasped her fat little hands and stood for 
a moment in rapt adoration of the flowers. 
Then she turned and trotted on toward the 
house. 

A small toad hopped in front of her. The 
baby gave a little squeal, and putting her 
hands over her eyes, she walked carefully 
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and deliberately around the toad, leaving 
plenty of room between them. Contentedly 
then she came slowly on. 

“ Hullo, Yellowtop!” called out Mark, 
who with the others had watched the event- 
ful journey across the lawn. 

At this the baby looked up, saw the three 
strange men, and with a sudden absolute 
collapse she dropped to the ground where 
she stood, sitting squarely down, her chubby 
fingers outstretched on either side of her, and 
her feet sticking up in front. For a moment 
she stared blankly at the awful sight before 
her, and then, opening her mouth wide, there 
came forth a wail of terror and indignant sur- 
prise such as never was on land or sea. 

“Bless your baby heart! ” said Kenneth, 
“ what in the world ’s the matter ? ” 

The response to this was another yell, 
more prolonged and terrified than the first. 
This brought Miss Esther. 

“ What are you doing to Chub ? ” she 
exclaimed. 

“Nothing,” said Kenneth, honestly; “ she ’s 
hollering at me.” 


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“ I ’ll get her,” said Mark, helpfully, and 
bounding down the steps he picked up the 
tumultuous morsel of humanity. Pausing in 
the vocal demonstration of her temper, she 
resorted to effective pugilism and pounded 
Mark with her dimpled fists, her blue eyes 
flashing with the indignation of outraged 
dignity. 

“ Don’t hit him so hard, Baby,” laughed 
Putnam; “ you ’ll kill him! ” 

“ Will I ? ” asked Chub, pausing in her 
warlike enterprise, and looking straight into 
Mark’s eyes. 

“ Of course you will,” said Mark, reproach- 
fully. “ I ’m almost dead now.” 

“ I wath goin’ to thtop anyway,” said 
Chub with a final thump on his chest. Then 
she threw her arms around him as far as they 
would go and beamed adoringly at him. 

From that moment Mark bent his neck to 
Chub’s yoke. Her monarchy was absolute. 
Anything less than instantaneous obedience 
occasioned blood-curdling yells that always 
reduced Mark to sudden subjection, not only 
in self-defense but for the sake of suffering 
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humanity. By the time Mark had reached the 
porch Chub had reached a state of intermit- 
tent calm, and submitted with a fine air of 
condescension to the introductions thrust 
upon her. 

She greeted Lieutenant Adams and Ken- 
neth Westcott pleasantly at Miss Esther’s 
bidding, but allowed it plainly to be seen 
that she very much preferred Mark’s society. 

Miss Esther, seeing that Chub was peace- 
fully settled, turned to enter the house. 

“ Don’t go,” called Lieutenant Adams 
after her. 

“I must,” said Miss Esther; “ I have a lot 
of things to attend to.” 

“They can wait; I want you. I wish 
you ’d get one of the new magazines and read 
me a story.” 

Miss Esther went into the house and soon 
returned with several magazines. “ Here 
are the books,” she said, “but I can’t read 
to you. I have a hundred things to do this 
morning.” 

Putnam looked at her calmly. “You are 
not going to do any of them,” he said; “you 

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are going to stay right straight here with me 
— and read to me. Sit down in that chair.” 

Miss Esther sat down, and Putnam 
regarded her with a look of entire satisfac- 
tion. “ Any story will do,” he said. 

She turned the pages, hunting for the 
most interesting story. 

Her mind was slightly distracted by the 
novel sensation of submitting to irresistible 
authority. The feeling was distinctly pleas- 
ant. 

“ Romeo could n’t have done that,” she 
thought. “ A lover is more condoling, but 
my chief humor is for a tyrant. Well, I ’ve 
certainly found one in this dominating cousin 
of mine.” 


IX 


I pr’ythee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with 
thee. — As You Like It, iv, x. 

Kenneth started on his fishing expedition. 
The road which passed the Adams house 
wandered aimlessly off toward a woodland, 
and at the edge of this there was a brook. 
Here was shade, and fallen trees which 
offered particularly comfortable seats. As 
Miss Esther had said, there were no fish 
now. There had been one once — a very 
large one — which had been caught, but that 
was in the days when Miss Esther’s father 
used to fish there. This lack, however, did 
not cause the least worry to Kenneth. His 
mood was rather for the manner than the 
matter in hand. He wanted to fish — not to 
catch fish, and his mother’s pail, had there 
been nothing else available, would have 
suggested to him those essential ideas which 
are of the Waltonian impulse. He wanted 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

to think, and there is nothing more subtly 
conducive to the reflective frame of mind 
than sitting on a log, dangling a fish-line in 
a brook. If one catches fish, then there is 
immediate business in hand which spoils 
a train of thought. Your true philosopher, 
therefore, desires no fish — he simply wants 
to sit and think. That is the secret of fish- 
ing, and Kenneth Westcott knew it. 

Jean Richards, from behind the vines of 
her own veranda, had watched Kenneth’s 
departure from the Adams house and his sub- 
sequent progress toward the brook. “How 
absurd,” she thought, as she noted the rod 
and creel. “ He can’t catch anything in that 
brook. I ’ll go down and tell him so. I rather 
like those boys of Miss Esther’s. I think I ’ll 
cultivate them — the brothers I mean ; that 
lame lieutenant is a prig, I ’m sure, but the 
Westcott boys seem quite worth while. Yes, 
I ’ll go down there. He ’ll be glad of some- 
body to amuse him when he finds he can’t 
catch any fish.” 

Jean waited until she thought that Kenneth 
had had time to discover the fishlessness of 
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the brook, and then leisurely proceeded along 
the same path he had taken. 

She came upon him suddenly. Seated on 
the ground, his back against a fallen log, his 
hands clasped behind his head, and his fish- 
line trailing in the brook, Kenneth was star- 
ing vacantly toward the blue of the sky. 

“Good gracious, how you scared me!” 
cried Jean. “ I did n’t know you were here.” 

“ I ’m going away in a minute,” he replied, 
as, after a disinterested glance at the intruder, 
he went on with his sky-gazing. 

“Well, of all things!” exclaimed Jean. 
“ May I sit here until you go? Pm awfully 
tired.” 

“ Certainly, sit down if you like. It is n’t 
my log.” 

Jean sat down. Kenneth continued to gaze 
at the sky. 

“What are you doing?” she asked at 
last. 

“ Cleaning my automobile.” 

“Papa has just got a new buggy,” said 
Jean, ingratiatingly. 

“ Has he?” 


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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ My father is the manager of the Whit- 
field Flour and Feed Company.” 

“ Is he?” 

“ Yes, he is. He thinks I ’m nice.” 

“ Does he ? ” 

Jean rested her chin in her hand and re- 
garded the young man steadily for some 
moments. “ Do you know, I rather like 
you? Nobody ever talked to me like that 
before.” 

“ Do you like to be talked to that way ? ” 
Kenneth glanced critically at his fishing-rod, 
and moved his position a trifle. 

“ Yes; who are you, anyway?” 

“ You know my name.” 

“Well, what are you, then?” 

“I’m a fairy prince.” 

“ What are you doing? ” 

“ I ’m hunting a fairy princess.” 

“ How fortunate I happened along just 
now.” 

Kenneth rose, picked up his rod, walked 
a little way and leaned it against a tree. 

“ Oh, are you going ? ” asked Jean. “ Good- 
bye!” 


94 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“No, I’m not going. I’m coming back 
to sit on the log and talk to you; but I see 
an interruption approaching in the shape of 
two able-bodied men. One of them is our 
friend, Mr. Brewster.” 

“ And the other is Dr. Bushnell, the min- 
ister. Mr. Brewster is staying at his house.” 

The two newcomers accepted the hospi- 
tality offered by the occupants of the log, 
Brewster throwing himself at full length on 
the grass, and Dr. Bushnell, carefully select- 
ing an available place, seated himself with 
great dignity. “What a poetic spot,” he 
said. “ It reminds me of that wonderful line 
of Mrs. Hemans’s, ‘ Men may come and 
men may go, but I go on forever.’ That is 
a beautiful thought. It is well said that there 
are sermons in running brooks.” 

“Why don’t you pick one out for next 
Sunday, Dr. Bushnell? ” inquired Jean, with 
an air of seriousness. 

“ I think I will. I think I will. That is by 
no means a bad idea. I thank you, my dear 
young lady, for suggesting it to me. From 
a brook one may draw many — ” 


95 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Fish,” said Jean. 

‘‘Not from this brook,” said Kenneth. 
“ I ’ve been fishing all the morning and 
have n’t caught a thing.” 

“ I referred to sermons, not fish,” remarked 
Dr. Bushnell, mildly. 

“ Oh, I did n’t have any sermon bait.” 

“ And have n’t you really caught any- 
thing?” inquired Brewster. 

“ Only a fairy princess,” said Jean. 

“And that without any bait,” retorted 
Kenneth. 

“ Oh, I knew he would n’t catch any fish, 
so I came down to amuse him. We were 
playing fairy prince and princess.” 

“ Was this log your castle? ” asked Brew- 
ster, interestedly. 

“No, indeed,” replied Jean. “1 think 
the fairy prince was going to build a real 
air-castle, with moats and dungeons and 
things.” 

“ I don’t think that kind of a castle would 
suit you,” said Kenneth. 

“ What kind would suit me ? ” asked Jean. 

“A more modern one,” said Brewster. 

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r ^°' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ A brownstone front on Fifth Avenue, for 
instance.” 

“That would suit me exactly,” she re- 
plied, “ but it is n’t a castle.” 

“Would n’t you rather be suited exactly 
than to have a castle ? ” said Brewster, quiz- 
zically. 

“ Yes, I would,” said Jean, honestly. 
“ Helen is the one for the castle. You know 
Miss Fairbanks, — you met her yesterday. 
She has set her heart upon a real castle with 
turrets and drawbridges and moats.” 

“ She ought to have it, too,” said Brewster. 
“ She would grace it perfectly.” 

“ I am grieved to learn,” said Dr. Bushnell, 
“that Miss Helen has set her heart on any- 
thing so far beyond her reach. It seems to 
me not only the height of folly, but almost 
a sin to aspire to something that one may 
never hope to gain.” 

‘ ‘ 4 Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, 

Or what ’s a heaven for ? ’ ” 

quoted Brewster. 

“ Heaven, my dear sir, is quite another 

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< ^> THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ 

matter. We may all hope to attain that blessed 
state.” 

“True,” said Brewster, in such a bland 
tone of acquiescence that Jean giggled. 

“It is not a matter for flippancy,” said 
Dr. Bushnell, with his most ministerial air. 
“Ambition, rightly directed, and not having 
its source in a prideful desire for vainglory, 
is admirable and praiseworthy in all. But 
ambition that is selfish and based on a desire 
for vulgar ostentation and display — ” 

“ Helen Fairbanks is not vulgar or osten- 
tatious,” broke in Jean. “She doesn’t want 
a castle for show. What she wants and what 
she ought to have is the sort of thing repre- 
sented by a moated castle. She would fit 
right into a picture of that kind, and she 
knows it, and so, naturally, she longs in- 
tensely for it. But she is n’t miserable over 
it.” 

“ Of course,” said Brewster ; “ I have 
only met Miss Fairbanks once, and she 
certainly gives a stranger the impression of 
the Haughty Princess. One would hardly 
imagine her longing intensely for anything.” 

98 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“ That ’s only because you don’t know 
her,” said Jean. “ Her likes and dislikes are 
extreme. It is not the material castle that 
she cares for, either. It is simply that she 
wants to realize her tremendous ideals.” 

“Just as I said,” interposed Dr. Bushnell. 
“ Her ideals are so tremendous that I fear 
they can never be realized, and therefore I 
say that it is wrong for her to hold them. It 
is better to be like you, my dear young lady 
— contented with your lot and cherishing no 
overweening ambitions.” 

“Is that so?” said Kenneth, with much 
interest. “Do I really see before me an 
absolutely contented individual ? ” 

“You do not!” said Jean, indignantly, 
as if content were a thing to be ashamed of. 
“ I have fully as many ideals as Helen, though 
they are quite different ones.” 

“What is the chief one? ” asked Kenneth; 
“ a fairy prince ? ” 

“No, indeed; I have dozens of fairy princes 
who await but my nod. My chief desire this 
morning is for a white chiffon parasol and 
a maltese kitten.” 


99 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU * 1 $? 

“They are not exactly in line with the 
ideals you attribute to Miss Fairbanks,” said 
Brewster. 

“ No,” said Dr. Bushnell, “ but they are 
within the possibilities, and so show a more 
admirable trait of character, in that your 
desires are subservient to your probable 
attainments. Yours is a disposition to be 
envied.” 

“ I ’ll tell Helen that,” said Jean. “ I would 
like to have her envy me. It would be such 
a pleasant change.” 

“Why, do you envy her?” asked Ken- 
neth. 

“ I do, indeed. She is so beautiful and 
stately, and so great-hearted under her ap- 
parent calm indifference, and so unswerving 
in her aims, and so — so fond of kittens.” 

“ But you are that,” said Kenneth. 

“Yes, but the kittens are fond of her in 
return — that’s Helen.” 

“ If Miss Helen would confine her ambi- 
tions to kittens,” said Dr. Bushnell, “ it 
would be so much wiser and better for her. 
She is a dear girl, but it occasions me much 

ioo 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

serious thought when I observe her mis- 
taken tendencies. Does it not seem to you, 
Mr. Brewster — I ask you now in a general 
way — does it not seem to you that our ex- 
travagant desires, which in the very nature 
of things are impossible of fulfillment, should 
be curbed — nay, should be rooted out by 
the kind hand of friendly counsel ? ” 

“ I am sorry that I do not agree with you, 
Dr. Bushnell,” replied Brewster, “ but I ’m 
afraid I must confess to a deep sympathy 
with Miss Fairbanks, for I myself am a vic- 
tim of unattainable and often even incom- 
prehensible ideals.” 


X 


If he fail, yet go we under our opinion still that we have 
better men. — Troilus and Cressida, i, 3. 

After thinking it all over seriously, Miss 
Esther had concluded that Mark Westcott 
and Theodore Winthrop Brewster were the 
most suitable candidates yet entered on the 
books of her Matrimonial Bureau for the 
hand of her artist-client, Lillian Hastings. It 
had been difficult to choose between them, 
for they were both distinctly eligible, but 
after two or three days’ acquaintance, she had 
discovered that Mark possessed more of the 
traits which might develop into the character 
of the traditional fairy godfather. In pursu- 
ance of her plans, the wily lady one afternoon 
invented an errand for one unsuspecting 
youth. 

“ Mark,” she said, ingratiatingly, “ would n’t 
you like to go over to Lillian Hastings’s for 
me?” 

“ Why, are you over there ? ” 

102 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Don’t be saucy. I assumed that you could 
understand English. I ’ll try again. Cousin, 
or, fair cousin, I would wish you, or, I would 
request you, or, I would entreat you, not to 
fear, not to tremble: but to go, or, to walk, 
or, to amble withal, to the house, or the 
home, or the studio of Miss Lillian Hastings, 
and there with deep diplomacy acquaint thy- 
self with that which I desire. This having 
done, I bid thee tell me true that which with 
subtle art thou hast discovered.” 

“ Sure, I ’ll go ; but what is this tremen- 
dous mission ? ” 

“ Lillian is painting a picture, and I want 
to know if it is finished yet.” 

“ But where does the diplomacy come 
in?” 

“ You see, I don’t want her to know that 
I want to know, but when the picture is 
finished, I ’m going to have a party or some- 
thing for her.” 

“ What is the picture ? How am I to 
know it ? ” 

u It ’s a great big field with a cow in the 
middle.” 

103 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ All right. I can tell it by the cow, but 
how am I to know if it is finished ? ” 

“ That ’s where you must use your 
ingenuity. Take your time and lead the 
conversation around by devious by-paths 
until you find out.” 

“All right; put me up a little luncheon 
and I ’ll stay all day.” 

“ You have n’t any diplomacy,” said Ken- 
neth. “ I ’ll go along with you and manage 
the ingenious part.” 

“ No, no ! You can’t go, Kenneth. I want 
you this afternoon. I want you to take me 
driving.” 

“ But you can’t go driving, Cousin Esther,” 
broke in Lieutenant Adams. “ Y ou promised 
to stay with me. I ’ve got to have you. 
Clear out, you two boys, and stay as long as 
you like.” 

In the few days of Putnam Adams’s stay 
it had come about that the household obeyed 
him unquestioningly. Miss Esther realized 
that Kenneth’s going would interfere with 
her plans, yet there was no escape from the 
inevitable, and she docilely remained with 
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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < ^=' 

Putnam and watched the brothers as they 
sauntered across the lawn. 

They found Lillian at her easel, at work on 
a large landscape. 

“ That’s the picture, now,” exclaimed 
Mark, diplomatically. 

“ I told you you had n’t any ingenuity,” 
said Kenneth, “ and besides that can’t be the 
picture. There is n’t any cow in it! ” 

“ There was a cow — ” began Lillian. 
“How did it get away?” 

“ I painted it out,” replied the artist. 

“ Then that ’s the picture. I knew it was,” 
said Mark. 

“ What picture ? ” 

“We can’t tell you. We’re diplomats. 
When will it be finished? ” 

“ It ’s almost finished now. I think it will 
be done by Saturday.” 

“ Then that ’s all right. I ’ll tell Cousin 
Esther,” said Mark. 

“ What does she want to know for? ” 
“We can’t tell you. That’s a surprise. 
How can people be diplomats if other people 
ask them questions all the time?” 

105 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Hullo, who painted this head? ” Kenneth 
had discovered a portrait among a lot of 
sketches. 

“ By Jove ! ” exclaimed Mark, “ that looks 
like the girls.” 

“ What girls ? ” asked Lillian. 

“ Our girls,” said Kenneth. “ We’re en- 
gaged to them, you know. W ant to see ’em ? ” 

“Yes, indeed. Where are they?” 

The boys simultaneously drew from their 
pockets two thin gold cases each containing 
a miniature of a young woman. 

“Why, these are pictures of the same 
girl,” said Lillian. 

“Not exactly,” explained Kenneth. 
“We’ve each got one. You see they’re 
twins.” 

“ I should think they were twins. I never 
saw anything so much alike in my life. 
How do you tell them apart? ” 

“We can’t,” said Mark. “ At least we can 
tell the girls apart, but not the pictures. 
They got mixed up once and we ’ve never 
known which is which since. But it does n’t 
matter. They can tell us apart.” 

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< ‘H=' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < °^ a ’ 

“Yes, of course, they can tell which of 
you they are engaged to.” 

“ Yes,” said Kenneth, “we have to de- 
pend on them to sort us out. But sometimes 
I think they fool us.” 

“ I know they do,” said Mark. “ They 
think it ’s a great joke.” 

“Are you to be married soon?” asked 
Lillian. 

“Yes, there ’s to be a double wedding in the 
fall. Great time — I wish you ’d come to it.” 

“ I ’d love to go. Is Miss Esther going?” 

“ Oh, I guess so. She came on to Roger’s 
wedding, but she has n’t said anything 
about ours.” 

“ They ’re awfully pretty girls. What are 
their names ? ” 

“Butler — Edna and Edwina. We call 
them Ed for short.” 

“ How do they know which one you 
mean ? ” 

“Why, according to who says it. I 
would n’t call Edna ‘ Ed.’ ” 

“ You ’d better not,” said Mark. “ I ’d 
pound you if you did.” 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Where are they now ? ” asked Lillian, 
interestedly. 

“ They are going on with mother this 
week from Boston to the Adirondacks, and 
Mark and I are to join them there later.” 

Just then Brewster and Helen Fairbanks 
came into the studio. 

u We ’ve been walking miles and miles,” 
said Helen, “ and we ’re going over to Miss 
Esther’s for a cup of tea, and we want you 
to come with us.” 

“ All right,” said Mark, “ we ’ll go. Just 
wait a few minutes till Miss Hastings paints 
a cow into her picture.” 

“ Oh, the cow can wait till to-morrow,” 
said Lillian; “but won’t you show Miss 
Fairbanks those two miniatures, or one at 
least?” 

The boys produced the lockets and 
handed them to Helen. “ What a beautiful 
girl, ” she said. “ Is she your sister ? ” 

“No — she isn’t one girl, she’s twins, 
and she ’s engaged to these two brothers 
here,” said Lillian. 

“Which is which?” asked Helen. 

108 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Merciful powers ! ” exclaimed Kenneth, 
“you haven’t mixed them up again, have 
you? We just got them sorted out.” 

“ Why these are the Butler twins,” said 
Brewster as he looked at the pictures. 
“I’ve known them all their lives; — this is 
Edna and this is Edwina.” 

“ How can you tell ? ” asked Mark, admir- 
ingly; “ but give me Edwina quick, while 
you know.” 

“ Now I ’m ready,” said Lillian, sticking 
her brushes into an already crowded ginger 
jar. 66 Come on, let ’s go. It ’s almost five.” 

On the way to the Adams house they 
passed Dr. Bushnell’s. Brewster turned in 
at the gate. “ Go on,” he said, “ I ’ll get the 
book I promised Miss Fairbanks, and catch 
you before you get to Miss Esther’s.” 

That afternoon had proved an eventful 
one for Miss Adams, and had completely 
disarranged her Matrimonial Bureau. 

She had been sitting on the east porch 
with Putnam, when Nora announced the 
arrival of three ladies. 

“Well, Emily Westcott! ” exclaimed 

109 


e ^ s THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Miss Esther, “ I ’m so glad to see you. 
Where under the sun did you come from ? ” 
“ I ’m on my way to Saranac, and just 
stopped over for the night to see you and to 
show you my new daughters. This is Ed- 
wina Butler and this is Edna Butler. Where 
are the boys ? ” 

“ I ’m very glad to see you — all of you. 
But why do you call these young ladies 
your daughters ? ” 

“ Why, they ’re engaged to Mark and 
Kenneth. Have n’t they told you ? ” 

“ Mark and Kenneth ? ” said Miss Esther, 
“Mark and Kenneth! but which of you is 
which? How can they tell you apart? ” 

“ They can’t,” said Edna Butler. “ We 
tell them.” 

Miss Esther sat down. “Well, of all 
things ! ” she said. 

“ Why are you so surprised? ” asked Mrs. 
Westcott. “The boys are old enough. 
Mark is twenty-five — ” 

“ Yes, yes, I know. And I ’m very much 
pleased, — very much pleased. I am sure,” 
she added, turning to the young ladies, 

i io 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ that you must be twins. You are, are n’t 
you P ” 

“Yes, we are; I am Edwina. There’s no 
way to tell us apart except by our first 
names. Mark is my special property.” 

“ And Kenneth is mine,” said Edna. 
“ He has written so much about you and 
this beautiful place that we ’re perfectly de- 
lighted to be here. He told us, too, about 
numbers of new cousins he had found here. 
May n’t we see them ? ” 

“Yes, indeed,” said Miss Esther. “At 
least we have one of them on exhibition. 
Your boys have gone calling somewhere, 
but one of the new cousins — Lieutenant 
Adams — is on the east porch, laid up with 
a broken leg. Come out and amuse him for 
a while.” 

She took the Butler twins to the east 
porch, presented Lieutenant Adams, and 
then returned to Mrs. Westcott. “Those 
young people can take care of themselves,” 
she said, “ and you and I can have a good 
old-time chat.” 

“We’ve come out to get acquainted,” 


hi 


< ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU * = ^r > 

announced Edna. “You may not know it, 
but you are to be one of our new cousins, 
Lieutenant Adams.” 

“I’m very glad to hear that,” he said; 
“ but if I ’m your cousin, you must call me 
Putnam. What ’s your name ? ” 

“ Mine ’s Edna, and hers is Edwina. You 
may use them, if you like.” 

“ I don’t know how I can remember which 
belongs to which. Your gowns are exactly 
alike. You ought to have some distinguish- 
ing mark.” 

“All right. Give me one of your gilt 
buttons,” said Edna, “and I’ll wear it on 
my chain.” 

“ Of course,” said Lieutenant Adams, cut- 
ting off a button from his white duck coat, 
which Edna gleefully attached to her long 
chain. 

“ I want one, too,” said Edwina, “ to put 
on my chain.” 

“ Of course. Here ’s one for you.” 

Edwina strung the button on her chain. 
“ Now shut your eyes,” she said, “ and count 
ten.” 


I 12 


< 'H = ’ the matrimonial bureau < °^=’ 

During the counting Putnam heard an 
ostentatious rustle and two very similar 
giggles. Then he announced “Ten!” 

“Now look at us,” said one of them. 
“ Which am I ? ” 

“That’s dead easy; you’re Edwina.” 

“ How can you tell? ” 

“Why, because one of you is so much 
prettier than the other.” 

“Which?” cried the twins together. 

“ Both,” said Putnam, gallantly. 

“Well, if that doesn’t look like Win- 
throp Brewster,” said Edwina, as she saw 
a tall man in white flannels crossing the 
lawn. 

“ It is,” said her sister. 

“ Of course it is,” said Putnam. “ Do you 
know him? ” 

“Yes, known him all our lives. Hullo, 
Winthrop!” 

“ W ell, Peaches Butler ! ” exclaimed Brew- 
ster as he came up the steps. “ How did you 
get here? You see,” he explained to Put- 
nam, “that when I address these young 
women together I have to refer to them in 

JI 3 


< "^=* THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU * 1 ^ 

the plural. When I meet only one of them 
I call her Peach.” 

From the library window Miss Esther 
could hear the laughter on the east porch. 
She had left Mrs. Westcott in her room, after 
hearing from her the details of the boys’ 
engagements. 

“ Mark and Kenneth both out of it,” she 
thought “To be sure, I only needed one 
of them, but I can’t have either, it seems. 
I think the Jean and Putnam affair will turn 
out as I have planned. Then, of course, 
I must give Winthrop Brewster to Lillian. 
That still leaves Helen. She is certainly 
my most troublesome client. This being 
a Matrimonial Bureau is harder work than 
I thought it would be.” 


XI 


He well may be a stranger, for he comes to an honored 
triumph. — Pericles, ii, 2. 

After leaving Brewster at Dr. Bushnell’s, 
Mark explained to his companions that he 
had forgotten to go to the post-office as 
he had promised Miss Esther he would do. 
They all went with him. When they reached 
the Adams house there was no one on the 
front veranda. 

“We’re late,” said Helen, “and yet I 
don’t see any appearance of tea-things. I 
wonder where everybody is ? ” 

“ Some fearful accident must have hap- 
pened in this well-regulated family to have 
interfered with the tea routine,” said Lil- 
lian. 

“Yes,” exclaimed Kenneth, “the fearful 
accident is Putnam Adams. He has regula- 
tions of his own, and he has hypnotized 
Cousin Esther into thinking that they are 
hers. He’s probably having tea in that 
padded cell of his.” 

115 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“From the racket, I should say he had 
a whole tea-party,” said Mark. 

“We ’ll invite ourselves to it,” said Lillian. 

They sauntered slowly toward the porch, 
Lillian and Mark ahead, and Helen follow- 
ing with Kenneth. 

“That’s Mark’s laugh,” said Edwina. 
“ The boys are coming, Ed.” 

The Butler twins flew to the vine-framed 
window and looked out to see Mark and 
Kenneth apparently very much interested 
in two merry young women. At the same 
moment Lillian spied the twin faces in the 
leafy frame. “ There,” she cried, “ are the 
girls out of your lockets! ” 

“ Edwina Butler! ” yelled Mark, dropping 
in an astonished heap on the grass. “ Which- 
ever one of you belongs to me, come out 
here — quick! ” 

“No, you come up here. Aren’t you 
awful glad to see us? We’re a surprise 
party,” said Edwina. 

“ You certainly are,” said Kenneth, bound- 
ing up the steps. “ What are you doing 
here, anyway ? ” 


* 1 ^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Lillian and Helen followed Kenneth, and 
Brewster introduced them to the Butler 
twins. Just as Mark rose to go, too, Jean 
came around the corner of the house. 
“ Where ’s everybody?” she said. 

“Up in Putnam’s porch,” replied Mark. 
“ Come on up.” 

“ Here comes Mark with another girl,” 
said Edwina to Brewster. “ Is he making 
a collection ? ” 

“Yes, I think he is,” replied Brewster; 
“ and I admire his taste in gems.” 

“ His latest acquisition seems to be a 
sparkling one.” 

“ She’s all of that,” said Brewster. “Jean 
Richards is a witch; but I’m not sure that 
I would call her Mark’s acquisition.” 

“ Is she yours ? ” 

“No, not that either. Lieutenant Ad- 
ams — ” 

Just at this moment Mark came up and 
Edwina lost interest in Brewster’s sen- 
tence. 

“ Mark has good taste,” thought Brewster, 
glancing at Miss Butler, “ but for myself — ” 

1 17 


<'1^' the matrimonial bureau 

He deliberately walked across the porch 
and seated himself beside Helen Fairbanks. 

Miss Esther and Mrs. Westcott appeared 
at the door. 

“The Mother!” shrieked Kenneth, and 
sprang to meet her. 

“ What a lot of people for tea,” said Miss 
Esther. “We must all go out on the front 
veranda right away. Everything is ready.” 

“We are going to have tea here to-day,” 
said Putnam. 

He looked at Miss Esther with that air 
of absolute finality which she had already 
learned meant ultimate acquiescence on 
her part; and while she felt it necessary to 
parley a little, if only for a compromise with 
her own dignity, yet she was secretly pleased 
with the positive knowledge that she would 
capitulate at last. In a word, she enjoyed 
Putnam’s despotism. 

“ But we always have it on the front ver- 
anda. We ’ll have to go out there,” she said. 

“No,” said Putnam; “it is to be served 
here. Sit down.” 

Miss Esther sat down. 
nS 


*1^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Now, Miss Richards,” began Putnam, 
“ you will kindly ask Nora to superintend 
moving all that tea baggage out here, and you 
Westcott boys get busy and do the boosting.” 

Usually Putnam’s orders were carried out 
to the letter, but when Jean reached the 
front veranda, she was surprised to see a 
strange young man sitting there. He was 
a fat little man, who looked as though he 
might be merry in favoring circumstances. 
But just now he sat in an attitude of deep 
dejection, his round face showing a most 
woe-begone expression. 

“ Don’t cry! ” said Jean. “ It ’s all right. 
What ’s the matter ? ” 

“ Somebody ’s broke the doorbell, and I 
can’t get in. Sit down, won’t you? ” 

Jean sat down beside him. “ I really must 
be going,” she said; “ they’re waiting for 
me inside.” 

“ Can’t I go in, too ? I ’m expected. I 
am Abraham Lincoln Dodd.” 

Jean regarded him critically. “ You don’t 
look like Abraham Lincoln,” she said. 

“No; I favor the Dodds. We are the 

1 1 9 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Dodds of Lawrence. We spell our name 
D-o-double-d. It is pronounced Dodd — 
the final d is silent.” 

“ How interesting,” said Jean. 

“Yes, isn’t it? Putnam Adams wrote 
for me to come down here. He said that 
his Cousin Esther said I might. Are you 
his Cousin Esther?” 

“ Oh, no. Miss Adams is a lady of about 
fifty.” 

“ Yes, so Putnam said.” 

“ Where are you, Miss Richards ? ” called 
Mark from the doorway. 

“ Here I am. Come out and meet Mr. 
Dodd.” 

“ Certainly,” said Mark, dropping down 
on the top step. “ Did Putnam tell you to 
keep Mr. Dodd out here ? ” 

“We can’t get in,” said Abraham Lincoln 
Dodd. “Nobody answered my ring, and 
I can’t find Putnam.” 

“ What ’s up ? ” asked Kenneth, coming 
out after more tea-cups. 

“ I’ve found a stranger,” said Jean, “and 
I took him in. Want to see him?” 


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< ^=' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU f *^r > 

u She has n’t taken me in yet” said Dodd, 
cheerfully. 

“ She will, though,” said Kenneth, sitting 
down beside his brother. “ It ’s a happy 
little faculty Miss Richards possesses. But 
you ’re not a stranger. Putnam expected 
you.” 

“ Yes, Miss Adams was kind enough to 
invite me. They said to come as soon as 
I could, and so I came right away. I drove 
over from Richfield Springs in my auto- 
mobile.” 

“You did?” cried Jean. “Have you got 
an automobile? Will you take me out in 
it?” 

“ All right,” replied Dodd. “ Get your 
hat.” 

“ There ’s a riot on the east porch,” said 
Brewster, appearing suddenly. “ Where is 
that tea-table ? ” 

“Never mind the tea,” exclaimed Jean. 
“ Here ’s Mr. Dodd, and he ’s got an auto- 
mobile! Come out and see him.” 

“Where is it? ’’asked Brewster, joining 
the group. 


I 2 1 


< ^=’ the MATRIMONIAL BUREAU *'3^ 

“ Why,” said Dodd, “ it was most unfor- 
tunate. Just as I was coming through the 
village it had a pain, so I left it at the black- 
smith’s. It will be all right by to-morrow.” 

“ I can go to-morrow,” said Jean. “ We ’ll 
all go.” 

“ How many are there of us ? ” asked 
Dodd. 

“ Oh, there ’s a lot of us,” replied Jean. 
“ There ’s Miss Esther — ” 

“Yes, here’s Miss Esther,” said that lady 
coming through the hall. “What is going 
on ? Are you going to keep these boys here 
all the afternoon ? ” 

“ Why,” said Jean, “ I ’m entertaining your 
company. Mr. Dodd is here.” 

“ Oh, Putnam ’s Mr. Dodd ? ” 

“Your Mr. Dodd, if you will have me,” 
said Abraham Lincoln, rising. 

“ Certainly I will. Consider yourself one 
of my adopted boys. I have a great many. 
Won’t you come in? ” 

“I’ve been trying to get in, but Miss 
Richards has kept me out.” 

“ She is quite capable of it. You ’re a bad 
122 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

girl, Jean. Go back to the east porch at 
once. Putnam wants you. Also, I left two 
girls weeping for the Westcott boys. Mr. 
Brewster, tell Putnam that Mr. Dodd is here. 
I ’ll bring him out there directly.” 

u It was right down good of you to ask me 
over here, Miss Adams,” said Dodd as they 
were left alone. 

“ I am glad to have you. Any friend of 
Putnam’s is welcome. I am very fond of that 
boy.” 

“Yes, he’s an all-round good fellow. 
I ’m sorry he ’s laid up, but this is certainly 
an ideal spot to be laid up in. The country 
is beautiful, and I ’m glad I brought my 
sketching-traps.” 

“ Oh, yes. Putnam told me you painted. 
I ’m so glad.” 

“ You won’t be when you see my pictures. 
I don’t paint very well.” 

“ But you take an interest in art? ” 

“ Oh, yes. I like pictures and I like people 
who like pictures.” 

It was with great satisfaction that Miss 
Esther showed Abraham Lincoln Dodd to 

123 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

his room. When she came down stairs she 
paused a moment in the library. “ It ’s no- 
thing short of providential,” she thought. 
“Just when I had to give up all hopes of 
one of those Westcott boys for Lillian, here 
comes along an even better candidate. He 
is not only available along the art lines, but 
Putnam says he is rich and so, of course, he 
could take Lillian abroad or anywhere she 
wants to go. I really think he ’ll do very 
well. Dodd is n’t a much prettier name than 
Briggs, and I did want Westcott; but I must 
not sit too long on trifles. It is working out 
admirably. There does seem to be a special 
providence that waits on Matrimonial Bu- 
reaus. If all goes well, Lillian can sail by 
the middle of August after all.” 


XII 


My chief humor is for a tyrant. — Midsummer Night's 
Dream , i, 2. 

Putnam’s tea on the east porch proved a 
decided success. Abraham Lincoln Dodd 
was an acquisition, and Miss Esther viewed 
the entire group with a secret elation that at 
last she had secured a stage-setting such as 
she wanted, and furthermore had brought 
her actors all together upon the scene. 

It seemed to her the perfected realization 
of her attempt to model a situation after 
those described in her favorite English 
novels. The wicker tea-table and its com- 
plete appointments, the pretty girls in their 
light summer frocks, the jolly, careless men 
with their unostentatious thoughtfulness for 
Putnam, the blue sky, the green, close-cut 
grass, and even the sweep of the graveled 
driveway, along which Miss Esther’s imag- 
ination could see Lady Rose’s daughter roll- 
ing in her victoria, — all these filled her 
heart with joy. This joy was not expressed 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < 1§ = ' 

in words, but its manifestation was evident 
in her demeanor and made her, appropri- 
ately enough, a fitting central figure for the 
picture. She looked at the three girls she 
was so fond of, she looked at her recently 
acquired collection of cousins, and then she 
looked curiously at Mr. Dodd and wondered. 
“ I think he will do,” she thought, “and he 
seems to like Lillian already.” 

As a matter of fact, Mr. Dodd seemed to 
like not only Lillian but all of Miss Esther’s 
guests, and apparently the regard was mu- 
tual. The centre of an admiring group, he 
was telling of some exciting experience 
which befell him when he was young. “ It 
was n’t so bad, then, but after I grew up — ” 
he began. 

“ But you did n’t grow very far,” inter- 
rupted Jean. 

“Not up, no; but I grew a lot cross- 
wise. I think Nature intended me for a 
sphere.” 

“ She accomplished her purpose admir- 
ably,” said Putnam. 

“ The minister was telling me the other 
126 



TEA ON THE EAST PORCH 






I 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

day,” said Jean, “ that I ought to find my 
sphere. I wonder if you ’re it.” 

“ No,” said Miss Esther, involuntarily. 
“That is, I mean,” she went on hurriedly, 
“ I won’t have anybody calling my guests 
spheres or any other geometrical solids. 
And by the way, Mr. Dodd, what am 
I to call you? You see, all these other 
adopted boys of mine I call by their first 
names.” 

“ But Mr. Dodd’s first name is so ponder- 
ous,” said Helen. 

“ It is,” said Dodd, hopelessly. “ But,” he 
added, brightening, “they used to call me 
Little Sunshine.” 

“I shall call you Lincoln,” said Miss 
Esther, decidedly. “ It suits you.” 

“ I am very glad to hear that somebody 
has at last realized my essential Lincolnic 
attributes. I have always wanted to issue a 
proclamation. I am a born proclaimer, and 
if I could only emancipate somebody from 
something, I could die happy. I am Lin- 
colnian to the backbone. I was cut out for 
a great fighter.” 


127 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < ^ => 

“ If you ’re talking about fighters,” said 
Mark, “ Fitzsimmons is my choice.” 

“Well, call me Fitz if you like. I might 
just as well have been named after him, if 
he had done his fighting as early as Lincoln 
did. He ’s another kind of fighter, to be 
sure, but if a man fights to win, what ’s the 
odds whether he fights men or condi- 
tions ? ” 

“ I don’t see why men like to fight so 
much,” said Lillian. “ I should think you 
would rather be something nice. A painter, 
for instance, like Sir Joshua Reynolds.” 

“ Oh, I am a painter, and you may call me 
Sir Josh if you like.” 

“Are you really a painter?” 

“Yes, I am. I ’m a big painter. My last 
picture was a scene up Gloucester way, and 
covered the whole coast, all the shore from 
Rocky Neck to Cape Ann.” 

“ All on one canvas ? ” asked Putnam. 

“Yes, I wanted it for a certain space, but 
somehow I got the thing too long, and when 
I got it home it would n’t fit.” 

“ What did you do then ? ” 

128 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ 1 had to take a tuck in it, — up and 
down, you know. It did n’t make any differ- 
ence. It only cut out a few miles between 
the DeCamp cottage and the hotels on the 
eastern shore. That stretch is uninteresting, 
anyway.” 

“ I ’m awfully glad you paint,” said Lil- 
lian; “ I paint some, too. If you paint better 
than I do, you can teach me.” 

“ I will, with pleasure, and if you paint 
better than I do, you can teach me.” 

Miss Esther smiled. Mr. Dodd was cer- 
tainly a most tractable man. If she had told 
him just what she wanted, he could n’t have 
fallen in with her plans better. She foresaw 
a friendship that should begin over the paint 
tubes, and should lead straight to the deck 
of the European steamer. “ Perhaps I am 
not exactly the god in the machine,” she 
thought, while apparently listening to Mrs. 
Westcott’s periphrases, “but I am the ma- 
chinist, and I must set the god to work. And 
if ’t were done when ’t is done, then ’t were 
well ’t were done quickly.” 

Miss Esther regarded Lillian with the 

129 


<r ^=> THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^r' 

expression a chess-player would bestow upon 
an idle pawn. She decided to make a move 
upon her matrimonial chessboard. “ Lil- 
lian,” she said, transparently diplomatic, 
“ would n’t you like to take Mr. Dodd over 
to your studio and let him advise you about 
that new picture of yours ? ” 

Lillian did want to, but not feeling sure 
of Mr. Dodd’s state of mind on the subject, 
she looked at him, inquiringly. 

“Nothing I should like better,” said he, 
jumping up. “ As an adviser I am a great 
success. I make a specialty of advising. I 
have noticed that nowadays it is the thing to 
be a specialist.” 

“ But I thought specialists were surgeons 
or doctors,” said Edwina Butler. “ Are you 
a doctor? ” 

“Yes, I am. I administer advice in cap- 
sules to my patients, and they ’re not always 
sugar-coated, either.” 

“Then sometimes they are hard to take,” 
said Lillian. “ I hope you ’ll sugar-coat 
mine.” 

“ I don’t know,” Dodd returned. “ I 
1 3° 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

have n’t seen your picture yet, and I don’t 
know what kind you ’ll need.” 

“ Advise her to put her cow back in the 
pasture,” said Mark. 

“ Where is she now? ” asked Dodd. “Do 
you allow your cow to paint on your pic- 
tures, Miss Hastings, while you ’re away?” 

“ No, it was only a painted cow upon a 
painted picture, and I unpainted her, be- 
cause — ” 

“ Because she would n’t moo,” interrupted 
Helen. 

“Oh, you are a realist?” asked Dodd. 

“Yes. I want to paint cows that can 
moo,” replied Lillian, “ although I may not 
hear them.” 

“They’d scare you to death if they did,” 
said Jean. “ I never knew anybody so afraid 
of cows as you are.” 

“Well, go on,” said Miss Esther. “I’ve 
no doubt if you meet any cows on the way 
Mr. Dodd will — ” 

“ Paint them out,” supplemented Putnam. 

“ We will,” said Dodd as he walked down 
the steps with Lillian; “but remember that 


< ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

sometimes it requires a good deal of cour- 
age to paint out.” 

Lillian gave him a glance of admiring 
appreciation. Miss Esther caught it, and 
smiled. 

Pursuing her role of a zealous and very 
active fate, Miss Esther next proceeded to 
clear the stage for the more prominent actors 
in her comedy-drama. “ Girls,” she said to 
the Butler twins, “ would n’t you like to see 
something of the place? Why don’t you ask 
that pair of Westcotts of yours to take you 
down where Kenneth was fishing the other 
day ? That ’s a most romantic spot.” 

“ Oh, we ’re not so romantic as all that,” 
said Edwina, “ or at least if we are, we have 
plenty of opportunities for romance; but it 
is n’t often that we get a chance at such a 
lovely afternoon tea as this is, and we want 
to stay to it.” 

“ This is my tea,” said Putnam, “ and I 
can manage it any way I like. Now I ’ll 
interrupt it right here, and you kids go down 
to the brook. We ’ll begin the tea again 
when you come back.” 

132 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Yes,” said Miss Esther, delighted that 
her necessary acquiescence with Putnam’s 
views should coincide so perfectly with her 
wishes, “run along at once. Stay as long 
as you like, and be sure to be here at seven 
o’clock for dinner.” 

“ They ’ll never get back by that time,” 
said Mrs. Westcott. “ You don’t know that 
quartette as well as I do. They have no idea 
of time. You ought not to let them go.” 

“ Why, she ’s sending us,” cried Edna. “ I 
don’t care a snip about going.” 

“Oh, go along,” said her hostess, “you’ll 
be back in time.” 

The four ran laughing down the steps and 
crossed the lawn in the direction of the 
woodland. Elated by her success so far, 
Miss Esther proceeded to dispose of Helen 
and Mr. Brewster, for her ultimate plan was 
nothing less than to leave Jean and Lieu- 
tenant Adams in undisturbed possession of 
the east porch. But Theodore Winthrop 
Brewster was not so easily managed as the 
Westcott boys. She made several unsuc- 
cessful attempts. “ Mr. Brewster,” she said, 

*3 3 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ s ' 

finally, “have you seen Jack’s ship since he 
has painted it? ” 

“I have, indeed,” said Brewster, cheer- 
fully; “in fact I helped him paint it yester- 
day.” 

“ But he put on another coat this morn- 
ing, and it really looks very different. Take 
Helen up to see it. She ’ s so interested in 
Jack’s ship.” 

“ I ’m the one that is interested in Jack’s 
ship,” broke in Jean; “ let me go.” 

“ Stay where you are,” said Putnam, dic- 
tatorially; “ you were n’t invited. Miss Fair- 
banks was.” 

“ But I don’t want to go,” said Helen. 
“I am very comfortable here;” and she 
leaned back in her lounging-chair with one 
of her best expressions of reposeful content. 

“You always exasperate me when you 
look like that, ” said Jean. “ I wish Miss 
Esther would make you go.” 

“ I can’t,” said Miss Esther. “ I can make 
some people do some things some of the 
time, but I know better than to order Helen 
Fairbanks around. Besides, Putnam is the 
*34 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

only one here who can make anybody do 
anything.” 

“ Try it,” said Helen, looking over at Put- 
nam. 

“ Not I. I should be proud to have you 
give me orders, but I should never dream of 
commanding Miss Helen Fairbanks.” 

“ Your decision is a wise one, as my fam- 
ily could tell you. Collectively and individ- 
ually they have tried to make me mind, 
but without any very startling success.” 

“ Come with me, Miss Fairbanks,” said 
Brewster. “ There are some interesting de- 
tails about Jack’s ship that I would like to 
show you.” 

Helen rose smilingly, and with an evi- 
dent unconsciousness that she was obeying 
dictation, she walked into the house with 
Brewster. Putnam caught Miss Esther’s 
glance across the porch and threw back an 
amused smile of comprehension. 

After Helen and Mr. Brewster left them, 
Miss Esther diplomatically contrived an exit 
for herself and Mrs. Westcott “ If you will 
come into the library with me, Emily,” she 

*35 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

said, “ I will look up those papers and we 
will settle those disputed genealogical ques- 
tions.” 

“ Oh, there ’s no hurry about it,” said 
Mrs. Westcott, “ I shall be here two or three 
days.” 

“ Come now,” said Miss Esther, “ I ’m 
just in the mood for it.” 

She held the door open with such an air 
of compulsion that Mrs. Westcott reluctantly 
went in. 

Left alone with Putnam on the veranda, 
Jean, for some unaccountable reason, felt 
vaguely embarrassed. “ I must take these 
things out to Nora,” she said, as she began 
rather aimlessly to fuss with the teacups. 

“ Stay where you are,” said Putnam. 

“ But you see,” said Jean, “ I really must 
look after these things. It ’s Nora’s after- 
noon out — at least I think it is — and Miss 
Esther always depends on me to look after 
things for her — especially if she has com- 
pany — and so, you see, I really must — ” 

“ Sit down,” said Putnam. 


XIII 


And I for no woman. — As You Like It, v, 2. 

“I won’t sit down,” said Jean. “You can 
boss Miss Esther as much as you like, but 
you need n’t think that I ’m going to do 
exactly as you say. I am in the habit of doing 
the ordering myself. That is the divine right 
of an only child.” 

“An only child needn’t be a spoiled 
child,” said Putnam, lazily. 

“ I ’m not a spoiled child,” and Jean’s eyes 
flashed ; “ nobody ever said that before ! ” 

“ I don’t object to being a pioneer. The 
role has always appealed to me.” 

“ Well, don’t indulge your proclivities in 
this undiscovered country.” 

“Why not?” 

Putnam regarded Jean deliberately, and 
with an expression of amused curiosity. He 
was an unusually handsome man, and his 
magnificent physique gave an impression of 
resolute power to a degree rare, even in a 

*37 


*'^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

soldier. This impression was in no way less- 
ened, but was rather accented by his present 
condition of physical helplessness. Stretched 
at full length in a steamer-chair, and conse- 
quently incapable of active exertion, he still 
showed unmistakable evidence of an im- 
mense amount of reserve force. It was this 
air of indolently conscious superiority which 
proved so excessively tantalizing to Jean. 

She sat down in a low chair beside him, 
and resting her chin in her hands, gazed 
straight into his eyes. 

“ Why not ? ” repeated Putnam. 

“Because I won’t stand it. You’re the 
spoiled child yourself. You always have 
your own way, irrespective of what anybody 
else wants, and it makes me furious to have 
you think that you can order me about as 
you do others. You shan’t do it! ” 

“ Why not ? ” said Putnam again. 

He still looked at her quizzically with the 
added provocation of a slight patroniz- 
ing smile. Jean flushed angrily. Putnam 
changed his position, but with difficulty, and 
the expression of pain which came into his 

138 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

eyes roused all Jean’s instincts of helpfulness. 
Without realizing what she was doing, she 
rose and took a pillow from the hammock. 
This she placed under Putnam’s shoulder, 
and with quick, deft touches patted it into 
exactly the right position. 

“ Thank you,” he said, with a grave court- 
esy quite at variance with his former teasing 
mood. Jean flushed again, but this time it 
was not with anger. She could not have an- 
alyzed the reason even if she had tried. It 
was simply the charm of Putnam Adams’s 
personality. Splendid physical strength and 
an iron will, with a calm, consummate indif- 
ference, born of unqualified self-confidence, 
make the most attractive combination pos- 
sible in a man, and he possessed these quali- 
ties in their perfection. Possibly the con- 
sciousness of this had added to his manner a 
little too great a touch of autocracy, but this 
was always forgiven him, because, when 
necessary, Putnam Adams commanded for- 
giveness with the same assurance that he 
commanded everything else. 

And so this personality appealed to Jean, 

i39 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

not only because of its effectiveness with all 
women, but because this was the first time 
that a man of this stamp had come within 
her experience. She was a little bewildered 
by it, and in consequence lost much of her 
self-confident ability to hold her own against 
any odds. 

Indeed, it was otherwise inexplicable that 
she, the high-handed dispenser of begged- 
for favors, should, not only without invitation, 
but without volition, have bestowed upon an 
outrageously indifferent beneficiary a favor 
which, however casual it might seem, was 
really a tribute to his masterfulness. She 
was conquered, although she did n’t know it. 

Putnam Adams knew it, but he did not 
tell her. 

After a few weeks of rest and Miss 
Esther’s care, Putnam’s condition improved 
to such an extent that [he was able to get 
about without his crutches, and was able to 
take his place in the sextette which had many 
excursions by automobile and otherwise in 
the surrounding country about Whitfield. 

140 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU f= ^= > 

The Westcott party had gone on to the 
Adirondack^, after promising to stop at Miss 
Esther’s on the way back. After Mark’s de- 
parture, Chub had transferred her affections 
to Abraham Lincoln Dodd, whom she called 
Linkum, and whom she alternately petted 
and tyrannized over. 

One morning Dodd lay on his back on the 
lawn, looking up at a very blue sky, and Chub 
amused herself by piling leaves upon his face. 

“ I ’m a wobin,” she said, gleefully, “ and 
you ’re my Babeth in the Woodth.” 

“ I knew a robin once, — ” began Dodd. 

“ A nither wobin than me ? ” 

“ No, not nicer than you, except that that 
robin did n’t put sand in my eyes.” 

“ Wath it a weally wobin? ” 

“ Yes, a really robin, with feathers. We 
were great friends.” 

“ I have a friend — he ’th a chipmuk; and 
I have ’nother friend, and he ’th a tagger; 
and I have ’nother friend, and he ’th a — a — 
a — Bear — a awful big Bear; and I had 
’nother friend, and he wath a little kittypillar 
— but he ranned away.” 

I 4 I 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“Is your bear a really bear?” asked 
Dodd. 

“ Oh, yeth; a big live bear with featherth, 
and he livth wight over there.” 

With a comprehensive sweep of her dim- 
pled arm, Chub vaguely indicated the habitat 
of the bear. 

“ Lovely! ” said Dodd. “ And do the tiger 
and chipmunk live there, too ? ” 

“ Yeth, we all live there, and we have 
thupper together and the tagger eath bread 
and milk, and the chipmuk eath cuthtard, 
and the bear — ” 

“ Eats the caterpillar? ” questioned Dodd. 

“ No, he did n’t. The little kittypillar 
ranned away, cauth the bear theen him go, 
and he ranned acroth the woad and acroth 
the brook and acroth the fenth, he ranned 
awful fatht.” 

“ Did you run after him ? ” 

“ Yeth, and I felled in the brook and got 
all drownded up, and the chipmuk come 
’long and he felled in the brook, and the tag- 
ger come ’long and he felled in the brook, 
and the bear come ’long and he felled in the 
142 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

brook, and the chipmuk come ’long and he 
felled in the brook, and — ” 

“ Oh, you had the chipmunk in the brook 
before.” 

“ Yeth, but he felled in two timeth; and 
the bear come ’long — ” 

But the end of this thrilling tale was lost 
to history, and so far as we know authorita- 
tively, the animals are still in the brook, for 
just at this moment Chub’s nurse appeared 
and carried the baby off for her morning nap. 

Dodd rose, brushed off the leaves and wisps 
of grass with which Chub had favored him, 
and went into the house in search of Miss 
Esther. When he reached the hall he saw 
her in the library. 

As he entered the room, she said, appar- 
ently to nobody, “ They are all doing beauti- 
fully, except Winthrop Brewster. I cannot 
understand, Cassius,” she said, “ what is the 
matter with that man. I ’m sure he cares a 
lot about Helen, and last night I managed to 
leave them alone on the East porch, and,” 
seeing Dodd in the doorway, “ if you ’ll be- 
lieve me, Lincoln Dodd, nothing came of it! ” 

*43 


the matrimonial bureau 

“ You don’t mean it! ” said Dodd. 

“Yes, I do, and I was just telling Cas- 
sius — ” 

“ I heard you address Cassius. Is he a 
dog? ” 

“No, I mean Caius Cassius. I often talk 
to my books — especially when I want ad- 
vice.’* 

“ Do you often get it? ” 

“ Always, if I ask the right ones.” 

“ How do you know who are the right 
ones ? ” 

“ My intuitions tell me, and just now they 
tell me that you are the one.” 

“ I ’m a good adviser,” said Dodd. 

“ Yes, I believe you are, and that is why 
I ’m going to ask you seriously about a very 
important matter.” 

“Do,” he replied. “I’ve been wanting 
excitement of some kind.” 

“Well, this will be exciting enough, I 
promise you. It ’s nothing more nor less 
than that you are to get married, — sooner 
than you expect to.” 

“To you? All right! ” 

H4 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU e ^jf > 

“No. Don’t be foolish. Not to me. But 
really, a rich young man like you are, and 
a good man, and a kind man, ought to make 
some girl happy.” 

“ But perhaps it would n’t make me 
happy,” said Dodd. 

“ Oh, don’t attempt to be coy with me. 
I understand perfectly how the land lies, and 
I am thoroughly pleased, I can assure you. 
Lillian Hastings is one of the dearest girls 
I know, and — ” 

“ Good Heavens! Miss Esther, what in 
the world are you talking about ? ” 

“ Oh, anybody can see with half an eye 
that you ’re in love with her.” 

“ But I ’m not. I ’m not a bit in love with 
Miss Hastings or with any other lady, and 
I never wish to marry or be given in mar- 
riage.” 

“You’re not in love with Lillian Hast- 
ings ! ” 

Miss Esther dropped onto the sofa. She 
looked the picture of woe. 

“ Et tu, Brute ! ” she said. “ Another can- 
didate defeated ! ” 

H5 


XIV 


Here ’s a small trifle of wives. — Merchant of Venice , ii, 2. 

Lillian’s studio was peculiarly fitted for 
confidences. It was away up in the top of 
a house which had been constructed in the 
time when gingerbread formed a part of the 
architectural impulse of Central New York. 
Still, up in the attic there had been left an un- 
finished room — garret, with rafters and other 
things dear to the heart of those who were 
born in Central New York in the middle 
seventies. This room the young woman had 
adapted to her own uses. She had impressed 
the men from the Whitfield Planing Mill 
and Agricultural Works, and she had di- 
rected them to construct a ceiling of matched 
lumber — though she did not know what 
matched lumber meant. 

After it was finished she discovered that 
it was simply a ceiling of boards closely 
fitted together, and that by no possibility 
could the boards be said to match — so far 
146 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

as her eye for color could discover. Still, 
she was satisfied, for she had covered the 
whole affair with a coat of burlap, and over 
this she had put a coat of paint — dark green, 
with splashes of gold in it — and when it was 
done she sat down and thought it all out. 

“ They thought it was matched lumber,” 
she said. “ I have made it match.” 

That, in effect, was the attitude which 
Lillian Hastings, she of the artistic tempera- 
ment, held toward life. 

This point of view had been questioned 
by Jean, but Helen understood it. “ It ’s this 
way,” said she, as they discussed it for the 
thousandth time. “ Very often Lillian’s 
lumber does n’t match, but she covers it up 
with a bit of decorative drapery and is per- 
fectly satisfied.” 

“ Yes,” said Lillian, “ but the decoration, 
if it is of my own choosing, pleases me so 
much that I forget the unmatchedness of the 
lumber.” 

a Just in the same way, I suppose,” said 
Jean, “ that you have forgotten the ugliness 
of that picture which you have so cleverly 

147 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

covered with that square of Turkish em- 
broidery.” 

“ Exactly that. As it is, I forget that the 
ugliness is behind, and see only the beauti- 
ful. To me the ugliness is not there.” 

“ No,” said Helen, “I know it. Now to 
me the ugliness is not only there, but is all 
the more visible to me from the fact that 
I try to cover it up.” 

“ That ’s foolishness,” said Jean. “ There’s 
no sense in seeing ugly things because they’re 
covered up; but then, there’s no sense in 
having them there, anyway. If a thing is ugly, 
why not take it away, or else go somewhere 
else yourself ? ” 

Lillian went about the work of the studio 
thoughtfully. “ There are some uglinesses,” 
she said, presently, “that one cannot get 
away from. If they are there, and are put 
there by those who put things there for us 
in the beginning — then why not either 
accept them or get away from them, or — 
cover them up ? The system is complicated. 
Not all can be escaped. Not all can be ac- 
cepted — but all of them can be covered up 
148 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 


to a greater or less degree, and the mere fact 
that we are conscious of them ourselves 
need not make them visible to those who 
happen to come under the influence of the 
beautiful things with which we cover the 
uglinesses — Bah ! the very idea of exploiting 
all our guilty consciences and all our ugly 
little ideas before everybody that may come 
along! It is disgusting. We know they are 
there. We know the spots on the wall-paper, 
and we know that there is a worn place in 
the carpet, and these mean either careless- 
ness or something else. Whatever they 
mean, we back a chair up against the spot 
on the wall and we put a rug over the car- 
pet’s shortcomings — just exactly as we put 
figurative chairs and rugs over the spots on 
our consciences. We know they are there 
— but the other people do not, maybe, and 
if they don’t, then they are not offended by 
the sight. They have n’t got to fight the 
thing out. If we have — then we can do it 
after they have gone away. We will have to 
do it alone, anyway.” 

“ I am more glad than ever that I have n’t 

149 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

the artistic temperament,” said Jean, “if you 
have to reason things out as deeply as that. 
I don’t see the use of paying any attention 
to ugly things. It ’s all I can do to find time 
enough for all the beautiful things there are 
in the world.” 

“ Much you know about the world ! ” flung 
in Lillian. 

“Mr. Brewster says,” remarked Helen, 
“ that nothing is ugly, per se .” 

“ I always did wonder what per se meant,” 
said Jean; “but it seems to me, Helen, that 
Mr. Brewster’s opinions mean an awful lot 
to you of late.” 

“ That ’s because his opinions are valuable 
per se .” 

“Now you see, Jean,” said Lillian, “ what 
per se means. It means to Helen.” 

“ Well, if he expresses his opinions to me 
more than he does to you girls, it ’s because 
I listen with some serious attention, and you 
— well, you never seem to be around when 
he ’s talking.” 

“ There ’s gratitude for you ! ” exclaimed 
Jean. “ After we have purposely kept out 
J 5o 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

of your way and tried our best to give you 
opportunities for hearing opinions — ” 

“And for serious attentions/’ broke in 
Lillian. 

“ You need n’t have troubled yourselves,” 
said Helen, “ for }^our kind efforts were not 
even noticed, let alone appreciated.” 

“ Speak for yourself,” said Jean; “ speak 
for Mr. Brewster too, if you like; but I can 
tell you that Miss Esther understood and 
appreciated our delicate little unattentions.” 

Helen looked at Jean — blankly at first, 
and then with a slow-dawning realization of 
her meaning. “ Am I to understand,” she 
said, “ that you think Miss Esther thinks that 
I am trying to attract Mr. Brewster’s atten- 
tions ? ” 

“Not so much that,” remarked Lillian, 
“but that Miss Esther is trying to attract 
them for you.” 

“Indeed,” said Helen; “do you imagine 
for a minute that I — ” 

“ Oh, Helen,” interrupted Jean, “ take off 
that haughty Princess air. Have you ever 
seen anywhere one who fitted the role of 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Prince for your castle better than this same 
man whose opinions you have been quot- 
ing?” 

“ Oh, if you are going to be serious about 
the matter,” said Helen, “ I am quite willing 
to admit that Mr. Brewster comes nearer to 
my ideal than any other man I have ever 
met.” 

“ He ought to appreciate that compli- 
ment,” said Lillian; “that is, if he knows 
what your ideals are.” 

“ He does know,” said Helen, slowly. 
“ I have told him.” 

“ Was n’t he scared, then? ” asked Jean. 

“ Of course he was,” replied Helen. “ He 
was so scared that he ran away and I have n’t 
seen him since.” 

“ You can see him right away, if you like,” 
cried Jean, who was sitting on the broad 
window-seat. “Mr. Brewster!” she called 
loudly. 

The automobile stopped. Brewster got 
out and came toward the house, smiling up 
at Jean. 

The machine, with Miss Esther and Lin- 
^2 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

coin Dodd as the only occupants, went puff- 
ing on along the country road. 

“ I am glad of this opportunity to talk to 
you alone, Lincoln,” began Miss Esther. 

“Well, you said you wanted to talk to 
me about something ; that ’s why I brought 
you out this afternoon. I thought we ? d 
manage to drop Brewster somewhere.” 

“ Do you know, I was perfectly astounded 
when you told me the other day that you 
were not in love with Lillian Hastings ! ” 

“ I told you only the truth. I was not, 
I am not, and I am positive that I shall 
not be. But I have no reason to think that if 
I were, it would particularly please Miss 
Hastings.” 

“That does not make any difference,” 
said Miss Esther, impatiently. “It would 
please me.” 

“ You know, Miss Esther,” said Lincoln, 
“ I would do anything in the world to please 
you, and if you are sure that Miss Hast- 
ings — ” 

“Oh, will you, really? I do want you to 
fall in love with Lillian, and I want you 

*53 


e ^f THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < 1§ = ' 

to be married by the middle of August and 
then take her abroad to study art.” 

“ Well, that is certainly a delightful pro- 
gramme you have mapped out for us.” 

“ I ’m so glad you think so. I knew that 
when you came to understand them fully, 
you would agree to my plans.” 

“ Have you many plans of this sort? ” 

“ Three,” said Miss Esther, very seriously. 
“ But the other two are all right. It was only 
you that I was worried about. I am very 
much obliged to you.” 

“Look here, Miss Esther, what in the 
world are you talking about? You surely 
are not in earnest?” 

“ I believe I ’ll tell you all about it.” 

“ If I ’m to be married in August, I think 
it’s about time that I knew something de- 
finite.” 

With an enthusiasm born of her deep 
interest in the cause, supplemented by her 
success with Lincoln Dodd, Miss Esther 
detailed to him the plans of her Matrimonial 
Bureau. She told him of the inception of 
the plan, and how happy Tekla was in her 
i54 


e= ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Nebraska home. She told him, too, of the 
dearth of suitable material for her protegees 
in Whitfield, and she told it all with a 
quaintness of argument that carried con- 
viction. She enumerated instances which 
proved conclusively that Lieutenant Adams 
was interested in Jean ; she confessed that 
the affair between Helen and Brewster was 
not progressing quite as rapidly as she de- 
sired, but looked forward with a cheerful 
confidence to what she hoped was inevit- 
able. “ And now,” she said, “ that I feel 
assured of your regard for Lillian, I cannot 
help flattering myself that perhaps my seem- 
ingly unusual methods have not been em- 
ployed altogether in vain.” 

“But, my dear Miss Esther,” cried Dodd, 
“now that I grasp your meaning as one 
having inside information, let me hasten to 
tell you that although I must refuse to be 
a candidate, even for the hand of any one 
of your charming protegees, I shall be more 
than glad to remain upon the executive 
committee, and I promise to help you in 
every way that I possibly can.” 


*55 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

Miss Esther was of a buoyant nature ; she 
was persevering, even persistent, and it took 
a pretty hard blow to daunt her, and now 
the blow had fallen. A week before Lincoln 
Dodd had discouraged her. He had refused 
to fall in with her plans. But to-day she had 
thought he was more tractable, even to the 
point of acquiescence; and to have her hopes 
ruthlessly crushed to earth, even though sure 
they would rise again, made her feel for the 
moment absolutely discouraged. “I don’t 
see,” she said, “ how you can help me in any 
other way.” 

“Oh, there are lots of other ways, my 
dear Miss Esther. For one thing, I might 
provide a substitute. I know a man who 
I am sure would admire your Lillian Hast- 
ings. He is a most kind and estimable 
gentleman, admirably fitted for the role of 
loving fairy godfather. He is intensely 
interested in art and would enjoy nothing 
better than a honeymoon trip to Europe on 
the fifteenth of August. Is that a sailing- 
day? I never can be sure of what day a 
steamer sails.” 

156 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“That does n’t matter,” said Miss Esther; 
“ who is the man ? ” 

“ He is my father,” said Dodd. 


XV 


Pray thee, let it serve for table talk. — Merchant of Venice f 
iii, 5- 

It was certainly surprising that when Dodd’s 
father accepted Miss Esther’s invitation and 
came to the Adams house, the gayety of that 
particular nation was increased rather than 
diminished. The young people most inter- 
ested had felt that the advent of an elderly 
gentleman might prove an obstacle to the 
careless fun and frolic which they had en- 
joyed all summer. Instead of which, Mr. 
George Washington Dodd, father of Abra- 
ham Lincoln Dodd, proved himself not only 
ready to follow the leader, but to lead the 
followers. He not only fell in with their 
plans, but he proposed plans of his own and 
insisted upon their being carried out. 

The plans were usually impracticable, but 
he insisted just the same, and the attempts 
at them were just as much fun as if they had 
been successful. He had not been in the 
158 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

house twenty-four hours before he had 
turned the East porch inside out. “ I think 
the hammocks would be more comfortable 
out under the trees,” he said, and out the 
hammocks went. 

Michael was instructed how to trim the 
box-hedges, and the cook was inducted into 
the mysteries of a salad dressing which had 
chives — and not too many. He persuaded 
all the clocks in the house to strike together, 
and painted the chicken-coops red because 
he liked them better so. 

He reconstructed Jack’s battle-ship upon 
more approved models and showed him the 
distinctive difference between a brig and a 
brigantine. As for Chub, he proved himself 
to be an adept in the quelling of the ebul- 
lient fits of temper which manifested them- 
selves so often. Her most theatrical pose 
was to sit down and yell with much en- 
thusiasm, as she did when she first discov- 
ered the young men on the East porch. 
When George Washington Dodd saw this 
exhibition for the first time, he approached 
Chub casually, put his hand over her mouth, 

*59 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

and said “ Stop that! ” whereupon Chub im- 
mediately stopped. Though often repeated, 
this process continued efficacious. 

In a word Mr. Dodd became a power in 
the house. Not just such a power as was 
Lieutenant Adams. Putnam’s masterfulness 
was actuated by motives which would be 
considered rules under the Army Regula- 
tions, and, so far as he was concerned, they 
made law. They were reasonable and — 
well, when he wanted a thing done, he 
wanted it done instantly. They have that 
habit of demanding obedience in the Army. 
Dodd, on the contrary, had the wayward 
whims of a spoiled child, but carried them 
out with an unflinching determination before 
which even Putnam Adams went down. 

Miss Esther pondered deeply over this 
difference in the characters of the two men. 
She realized that she implicitly obeyed Put- 
nam, and she enjoyed doing so. She assisted 
in the carrying out of Mr. Dodd’s plans, as 
they all did, compelled by the sheer force 
of his whimsical, inconsequent personality. 

“ He ’s like a child,” she thought, “ a great, 
160 


< “^ = ' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

big, overgrown boy; and he’s just made 
to be humored. If Lillian can only learn to 
humor him, she can have her own way as 
much as she likes.” 

It was at this point in her meditations that 
Miss Esther was interrupted by Lincoln 
Dodd. 

“ Did n’t I tell you Father would admire 
your Lillian Hastings?” he said, dropping 
astride of the first chair he came to. 

“ Does he ? ” said Miss Esther, eagerly. 

“Does he! I should say so. Just look at 
them now! ” 

Miss Esther looked and saw Dodd Senior 
and Lillian Hastings sitting on the lawn 
deeply interested in a game of mumble-peg. 
Although Lillian’s discarded parasol lay only 
a few feet away, the players sat in the broil- 
ing sun, apparently oblivious of the heat. 

“Coming on all right, isn’t it?” said 
Lincoln. 

“Yes. I hope so — I think so; but he 
has n’t said anything definite.” 

“How do you know he hasn’t?” asked 
Lincoln. 

161 


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“Oh, I’m sure Lillian would have told 
me if he had.” 

“ Perhaps he has n’t had a chance.” 

“ Oh, if that’s the case, let’s make a chance 
for them.” 

Lincoln entered into the spirit of the game 
with enthusiasm. “ Let ’s ask Lillian to stay 
to tea,” he exclaimed. 

“ She ’ll stay anyway,” replied Miss 
Esther; “and besides, that won’t give them 
a chance alone.” 

“Well, ask her to stay to dinner, and Dad 
can take her home.” 

“ That will do,” said Miss Esther ; “ and 
it ’s a lovely moonlight night.” 

So the conspiracy succeeded, and Lillian 
stayed to dinner. 

“Am I the only guest?” asked Lillian, 
when dinner was announced. 

“Yes,” said Miss Esther; “that doesn’t 
embarrass you, does it?” 

“I was afraid it might,” said Putnam, 
“so I’ve sent for Jean. Stay the proceed- 
ings, Cousin Esther; she’ll be here in a 
minute.” 

162 



IN THE BROILING SUN, OBLIVIOUS OF THE HEAT 



I 




* 










THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Jean came flying in, becomingly flushed 
after her run across the field. “ I came across 
lots,” she exclaimed, “ because I was in such 
a hurry to get here. Thank you, so much, 
Miss Esther, for sending Jack for me.” 

“Why, I didn’t send him,” said Miss 
Esther. 

“But he said that you said that I must 
come because you were going to have straw- 
berry shortcake for dinner.” 

“ How ridiculous,” said Miss Esther. “ I 
never sent any message at all by Jack, and 
besides, there are n’t any strawberries now. 
It’s too late.” 

“ I never thought of that,” said Jean, look- 
ing a little blank. “ I was so glad to come,” 
she explained, ingenuously. 

“ I sent the message myself,” said Putnam, 
calmly. “ I knew you would n’t come unless 
I sent an invitation from Cousin Esther. And 
of course, I didn’t mean real strawberry 
shortcake.” 

“ Perhaps you did n’t mean for me really 
to come,” said Jean. 

“ I meant I really wanted you to come.” 

163 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ If I had known that you sent the invita- 
tion I would n’t have come.” 

“Not if you knew that I really wanted 
you ? ” 

At this, Lincoln, who was behind the 
speakers, nudged Miss Esther’s arm, and 
rolled up his eyes ecstatically. Miss Esther 
looked like a beneficent Machiavelli, and 
folded her hands with an air of intense com- 
placency. 

“Of course,” said Jean, “you always suc- 
ceed in getting what you want; — that’s 
your way. But in this case — ” 

“ In this case,” said Putnam, provokingly, 
“ I succeeded in getting you.” 

“ Indeed you have n’t succeeded in getting 
me!” 

“Well, if I haven’t, I will,” said Putnam, 
as he rose to go to dinner. 

This speech so pleased the conspirators, 
that Lincoln Dodd seized Miss Esther’s 
hands, and the two fairly danced down the 
long hall toward the dining-room. 

“ Hang out our banners on the outward 
walls,” sang Miss Esther. 

164 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ What for? ” asked Lillian, who, accom- 
panied by Mr. Dodd, had joined the proces- 
sion. 

“ So people can see them, of course,” said 
Lincoln. “ It ’s foolish to hide your banners 
under a bushel.” 

With what Miss Esther deemed a mas- 
terpiece of generalship, she arranged that 
Lillian should sit next to Mr. Dodd. Lillian, 
willfully misunderstanding instructions, took 
the chair on the side of the table where Lin- 
coln stood. 

“ Oh, she does n’t mean me,” he exclaimed 
in dismay. “ She means the Ancient.” 

“What are you?” asked Putnam; “the 
Honorable? ” 

“ I think,” said Lillian, “ that the young 
Mr. Dodd looks older than the old Mr. 
Dodd.” 

“It’s quite as bad,” said Putnam, “to 
say ‘ the old Mr. Dodd,’ as to say ‘ the An- 
cient.’” 

“ But I have to distinguish them in some 
way, and I don’t see that either one looks 
older than the other.” 


165 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“ You might call me George,” suggested 
Mr. Dodd, casually. 

“ I ’m afraid if I did, you would call me 
Lillian/’ 

“ Very likely,” said Mr. Dodd. 

“ Let ’s order some more banners,” whis- 
pered Lincoln to Miss Esther. “ I think 
we ’ll need them.” 

“ What are you talking about? ” said Jean. 
“ What are these banners ? ” 

“A banner,” said the Ancient, instruct- 
ively, “ is one who or that which bans.” 

“ What does ban mean? ” asked Lillian. 

“ A ban,” said the Ancient, still instruct- 
ively, “ is a thing you put things under.” 

“ I thought it meant to get married,” said 
Jean. 

“ That ’s when it ’s plural,” explained the 
Ancient, kindly. “ It takes two banns to get 
married.” 

“ May I interrupt your very wise dis- 
course,” said Putnam, “ long enough to re- 
quest you to pass me the salt ? ” 

“Now that’s always the way,” said the 
Ancient in an exasperated tone; “the con- 
166 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < A§°’ 

ventional dinner -table appointments are 
sadly at fault. One never gets fairly started 
on a logical sequence of ideas, but one is 
interrupted by a request to pass the salt. 
I use the term advisedly. The passing of 
the salt is but a type of the things which we 
are made to do at the time when we do not 
want to do them. There should be a remedy 
for all this. Invention, as it stands to-day, 
is deplorably neglectful of our minor needs. 
Invention, after all, is but the application of 
some well-known force or principle to a new 
use.” 

Here the Ancient produced from his 
pocket a small mechanical toy. It was a tiny 
automobile, made of tin and painted red, and 
when wound up would run by itself for 
several minutes. Turning it upside down, he 
proceeded to wind it; then reversing it, and 
holding the wheels tightly, he emptied into 
it the contents of Miss Esther’s salt-cellar. 
Starting it in the direction of Putnam, he 
released the wheels and the machine moved 
slowly along the table. 

“ You see,” he observed, “how easy it is 

167 


< ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU *‘^=' 

to apply mechanical power in a way which 
will do the most good. If every dinner-table 
were supplied with this simple contrivance, 
it would do away with the passing of the 
salt. Consequently, there would be no inter- 
ruption in one’s flow of conversation.” 

“With one’s flow of conversation!” said 
Jean. “ And pray, when would the other five 
get a chance to speak ? ” 

“ They would n’t,” said the Ancient. 

“ I don’t see why any one wants to inter- 
rupt,” said Lillian, “ when the conversation 
is so instructive and entertaining as Mr. 
Dodd’s is.” 

“ Banners ! ” said Lincoln, aside to Miss 
Esther. 

But later in the evening there was reason 
to bring in the banners from the outward 
walls, or at least it seemed so. Miss Esther’s 
deep-laid scheme for sending the elder Mr. 
Dodd home with Lillian seemed in imminent 
peril. When Lillian announced that it was 
time for her to go, Putnam suggested that as 
he was about to go home with Jean, Lincoln 
and Lillian could go with them, and they 
1 68 


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would all walk around by the brook. Miss 
Esther was not present at the moment, and 
though three people strongly objected to the 
arrangement, as Putnam’s suggestions were 
looked upon as commands, none of them 
dared question it. 

Lincoln Dodd did not wish to appear 
ungallant; Washington Dodd was not quite 
sure that his escort was desired, and Lillian 
naturally hesitated to express her preference. 

Lincoln Dodd rushed into the house, os- 
tensibly to fetch his hat, but really to find 
Miss Esther. He almost ran over that lady 
in the hall, and whispered tragically, “ Haul 
in the banners ! Awful things are happening ! 
Putnam says I Ve got to go home with Lil- 
lian.” 

“ Putnam, indeed ! ” cried Miss Esther. 
“ I ’ll fix Putnam.” 

She hurried out on the veranda. 

“ Lincoln can’t go home with you, Lil- 
lian,” she said. “ I want him myself this 
evening. He promised to — transplant some 
bulbs for me.” 

“ They ’re night-blooming cereus,” said 

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e ^> THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Lincoln, “ and they always have to be moved 
at night.” 

“Yes,” said Miss Esther; “and so, Mr. 
George Dodd, will you please escort Miss 
Hastings home ? ” 

“ Certainly, if Miss Hastings does n’t ob- 
ject to the transfer,” said Mr. Dodd; but he 
spoke without enthusiasm. 

“ Oh, all Dodds look alike to me,” said 
Lillian, flippantly. 

Miss Esther looked the picture of despair, 
as, after this speech, Lillian and her appar- 
ently unwilling escort walked silently down 
the path. 

“ Honestly,” said Miss Esther, “ from the 
depths of your heart, tell me truly what you 
think; tell me by the light of your greater 
experience, and by the knowledge you have 
of your father’s affections; tell me,” she 
continued, tragically, “ will those two hearts 
find each other ? ” 

She hung on his words with the air of 
a doomed prisoner awaiting sentence. 

“ I don’t know,” said Dodd. 


170 


XVI 


Conspirant ’gainst this 'high-illustrious prince. — King 
Lear , v, 3. 

“ I suppose,” said George Washington Dodd, 
indulgently, as they went out the gate, “ that 
you, being possessed of youth, beauty, and 
a romantic temperament, would prefer to go 
home around by the brook.” 

“ Yes,” said Lillian, “ I would, and I am 
going that way. But if you, not being pos- 
sessed of those very desirable qualities, 
prefer to go the other way, you may.” 

“ No, we ’ll both go around by the brook,” 
said Dodd, airily; “for those qualities are 
as much mine as yours. Beauty is entirely 
a matter of opinion, and my own opinion is 
that I am very beautiful. Youth is a matter 
of comparison, and by some standards I am 
exceedingly young; and as to my romantic 
temperament — give me a chance.” 

“Your beauty of its kind, I will admit, 
though perhaps it is not equal to my own,” 
said Lillian, consideringly; “ your romantic 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

temperament is an unknown quantity — it 
may be like mine; but surely I am not quite 
as old as you are.” 

“ I ’m not sure about that,” Dodd replied. 
“ Of course, you are young, but then so am 
I. The gods love me, and I shall never grow 
old.” 

“ But,” objected Lillian, “ those whom 
the gods love die young.” 

“ That is, I admit, the accepted intent of 
the quotation, but its real meaning is that 
those whom the gods love are young when 
they die, for the simple reason that they 
never grow old. That makes me just the 
same age as you, and I shall always stay so.” 

“ All right,” said Lillian ; “ then we ’ll go 
around by the brook.” 

“And now,” said Dodd, as they walked 
along the path to the brook, “ since you have 
conceded my youth and beauty, I will pro- 
ceed to convince you of my romantic tem- 
perament. Just now it is wildly enthusiastic 
over the beauty of the night. To me, the 
moon is a beautiful golden boat, sailing 
away over blue waters. And that reminds 
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* 1 ^* THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

me, I shall sail myself next month, I am 
going abroad.” 

“ To study art? ” 

“No, not that, although I mean to buy 
a few pictures that I Ve had my eye on for 
some years. By the way, I want you to go 
with me.” 

“ To advise you about the pictures? ” said 
Lillian, delightedly. 

“No, as my wife.” 

“ What ! ” exclaimed Lillian. 

“You heard me,” said Dodd. “It may 
seem precipitate, but I am a man of quick 
decisions. I always decide quickly when 
I find what I want — whether it ’s a picture 
or you.” 

“ Are you sure you want me ? ” asked 
Lillian. 

“Yes, I ’m sure. I was sure the moment 
I saw you. I want you, and I want you now. 
I want you to marry me and go abroad with 
me next month.” 

“And then may I study art?” 

“You may not. There’s to be no more 
of this art foolishness. We will look at pic- 

i73 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^f' 

tures together, and we will buy pictures 
together, but you have painted your last 
picture. Will you go with me?” 

“Well, for a girl with a confessedly ro- 
mantic temperament, this is about the most 
unromantic proposal I ever heard of ; and 
from a man, too, who boasted of his own 
romantic temperament.” 

“Never you mind that. Once you have 
answered my question in the way I want 
you to, my romantic temperament is at your 
disposal for the rest of your life; but just 
now I am in earnest.” 

“ You seem to be in earnest,” said Lillian, 
“but if ever I want an exhibition of your 
romantic temperament, it is at a time like 
this. Unless you can — ” 

“ Oh, I can ask you in more romantic 
terms, if that ’s what you want.” 

Dodd dropped on one knee, struck his 
breast melodramatically, and began — 

“ Queen Regent of my heart, may I sup- 
plicate — ” 

“ Oh, not that way,” interrupted Lillian. 
“ That ’s foolish. I don’t believe your ro- 
*74 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

mantic temperament is the real thing at 
all.” 

“ Yes, it is — truly, it is. I ’ll try again.” 

He put his arm around Lillian, and began 
with an impassioned, “My darling — ” 

“ Oh, that won’t do at all — that ’s too 
familiar.” 

“ Is it ? ” said Dodd, composedly, but he 
did not release her. “Well, then, I’ll tell 
you what. I ’ll just say in plain English, 
6 Will you be my wife?’ and you just say, 
6 Yes,’ and then to-morrow I ’ll make a study 
of this and write it out in a sort of an essay. 
We ’ll write it together. Now then, will 
you marry me ? ” 

Lillian was helpfully silent. 

“ Say Yes,” he prompted. 

Lillian said yes. 

The next day George Washington Dodd 
wandered around the house in a sort of 
beatific daze quite contrary to his usual alert 
activity. 

He and Lillian had planned to announce 
their engagement that afternoon at tea, and 

r 75 


< ^=» THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

they anticipated a truly exciting occasion. 
After luncheon Mr. Dodd strolled into the 
darkened library and lay down upon a couch 
in a remote corner, where he promptly fell 
asleep. A little later he was wakened by 
voices in the room. 

“ I wish I knew,” said Miss Esther, “ ex- 
actly how the situation stands. Do you think 
there ’s any hope ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said Lincoln. “ Dad 
thinks an awful lot of her, but don’t believe 
she cares for him much; and it’s awfully 
soon, anyway. Give them time.” 

“ Oh, I think Lillian is very fond of your 
father,” said Miss Esther; “ but somehow he 
does n’t seem to have a very high opinion of 
her art work.” 

“ He has n’t,” said Lincoln, honestly. 
“ But he has a high opinion of her.” 

“Well, that will do just as well, if only 
he will come to the point soon. I wish you’d 
ask him what he means to do, for if Lillian 
sails by the fifteenth of August something 
must be done soon.” 

“Me ask him!” exclaimed Dodd; “he’d 
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tell me to go about my business. No, you 
ask him, or at least with your clever tact 
find out from him. I ’d rather ask Lillian.” 

“Well, then, you do that,” said Miss 
Esther; “and find out what you can and 
we ’ll compare notes. You meet me here 
in the library to-night and tell me what 
you Ve learned, and in the mean time I ’ll 
find out what I can from your father. And 
another thing that’s bothering me is this, 
I ’m afraid Helen is not going to accept 
Mr. Brewster.” 

“Has he asked her?” said Lincoln. 

“No,” replied Miss Esther; “but it’s 
because she won’t give him a chance. She is 
so proud and reserved, and she snubs him 
far more than she realizes. I don’t wonder 
that he does n’t like it.” 

“ Can’t you reason with her? ” 

“No; the more you reason with Helen 
Fairbanks, the worse she is. The only girl 
who is acting just right is Jean, and Putnam 
is a dear. That affair is going on just as 
I want it to.” 

George Washington Dodd, on the sofa, 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

suddenly realized that he was deliberately 
listening to the deep-laid plans of a desper- 
ate conspiracy, but as he had not made his 
presence known in the first place, he cer- 
tainly could not do so now, and it was with 
a decided feeling of relief that he saw the 
conspirators leave the room, quite unaware 
of his eavesdropping presence. 

“ Huh! ” he exclaimed; “ so they ’re going 
to hold a court of inquiry over Lillian and 
me, are they? Well, we ’ll be ready for 
them. After I Ve made up my mind what 
to say, and after I ’ve told Lillian what she ’s 
to say, they may begin as soon as they like. 
I ’ll go over and see her now, and I rather 
think we ’ll defer that announcement this 
afternoon. We’ll have a lot of fun out of 
this thing.” 

As he left the house, Lincoln was just 
coming from the stables in his automobile. 
“ Take me in,” said his father. “ Where are 
you going ? ” 

“ Over to the Hastings house,” said Lin- 
coln. “ Where do you want to go? ” 

“ That ’s where I want to go. I wish 
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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

you ’d leave me there and then do an errand 
for me down in the village.” 

“ But I was going to take Miss Hastings 
for a ride.” 

“All right. You can come back and get 
her after you do this errand for me. I want 
to send a wire to New York. Here it is. 
I have written it down.” 

Lincoln tucked the paper in his pocket. 
“All right,” he said; “I ’ll be back in half 
an hour.” 

While the telegraph operator waited, Lin- 
coln read the message his father had given 
him. It ran: 

“No message for New York. Just want 
to be rid of you for a few minutes.” 

“ There ’s some mistake here,” said Lin- 
coln to the operator. “ I have brought the 
wrong paper. I ’ll see you again later.” 

“Phew!” he said. “Dad’s coming it 
rather strong. To think of his sending me 
on a kid’s errand like that! But I ’ll be even 
with him yet! ” 

When he reached the Hastings house he 
found his father and his hoped-for step- 

179 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

mother apparently wrapped in the deepest 
gloom. They sat far apart on the veranda 
and appeared to be dejected beyond power 
of words. As he drew up, his father said, 
“ I believe you were to take Miss Hastings 
for a drive. She is quite ready to go. I will 
walk on home.” 

“ Just as well take you over, Dad! ” 

“ No, thank you. I prefer to walk.” 

After a very slight exchange of courtesies 
with Lillian, which Lincoln had no idea was 
part of a carefully prearranged plan, George 
Washington Dodd walked away, inwardly 
chuckling, but displaying great gravity of 
demeanor. 

“ That telegram scheme was an inspira- 
tion,” he said to himself. “ Now if Lillian 
only does exactly as I told her to, and I 
think she will, that young hopeful of mine 
will have a ripping report to take home to 
his fellow conspirator. As for the fellow 
conspirator herself, I will see to it that she 
has a report equally hair-raising.” 


XVII 

A quarrel, but nothing wherefore. — King Lear , ii, 3. 

Delighted with the little comedy he had 
devised, Mr. Dodd walked on toward home. 
At the gate he was joined by Jean. 

“ Why are you looking so particularly 
pleased ?” she asked. 

“ I was thinking about a friend of mine 
who is very, very happy.” 

“ What made him so? ” demanded Jean. 

“He has just become engaged to a very 
beautiful young lady.” 

“Oh,” she replied; “ I thought you were 
looking happy on your own account.” 

“No, no, indeed; far from it. On my 
own account I am deeply, desperately dis- 
mal.” 

“ What are you going to do about it? ” 

“ I don’t know. What would you do ? ” 

“ When I feel like that I always go to Miss 
Esther and she talks to me.” 

“ Good. I will go straight to Miss Esther, 

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and somehow I have a feeling that she will 
talk to me.” 

“Do,” said Jean. 

By this time the two had reached the East 
porch, where, as usual, Putnam was reading 
in the hammock. 

“ How do you do,” said Jean. “Where ’s 
Miss Esther ? ” 

“ I think she ’s in the library,” said Put- 
nam. “ Shall I call her? ” 

“No,” replied Jean; “Mr. Dodd wants to 
see her; don’t you, Mr. Dodd? ” 

“ Oh, I do want to see her. I want to see 
her dreadfully.” 

“ What ’s the matter with Dodd ? ” asked 
Putnam, as that gentleman went into the 
house. 

“ I don’t know,” said Jean; “ but he ’s got 
the blues something fearful. I ’m so sorry 
for him.” 

“ Be sorry for me, won’t you ? ” said Put- 
nam; “I’ve got the blues, too.” 

“ Why do you have the blues? ” 

“ So you ’ll be sorry for me.” 

“ But I ’m always sorry for you.” 

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“ Why?” 

“ Because you have such a dreadful dis- 
position.” 

“ Yes, I have, haven’t I ?” said Putnam, 
placidly. 

“ Yes, you have; and the worst of it is you 
don’t care a bit.” 

“ Do you care ? ” 

“No, indeed — why should I?” 

Jean tossed her head, and Putnam ob- 
served, coolly, “ If you bob your head about 
like that, you ’ll lose that very beautiful pink 
rose out of your hair, which you have ar- 
ranged with such accuracy and precision.” 

“ I don’t care if I do ! ” 

“ If you don’t care for the rose, then give 
it to me.” 

“ Indeed I won’t. I would n’t give you 
a rose for anything.” 

“Why not?” 

“ Oh, because it ’s so silly and sentimental.” 

“ Oh, I did n’t mean it in a sentimental 
way. I never thought of that. I just saw 
a beautiful rose, and wanted you to give it 
to me.” 


183 


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“ Oh, well, if you want it that way, then 
take it! ” Jean snatched the rose from her 
hair, and threw it on the table between 
them. 

“ Give it to me,” said Putnam, dictatori- 
al^. 

“ I ? ve given it to you just as much as I in- 
tend to. If you want it, take it.” 

“ I do want it, but I won’t take it, and you 
shall give it to me.” 

“ I won’t do any such thing! You are 
altogether too domineering. It was all very 
well when you were an invalid, and ought 
to be read to, and coddled, and fussed over, 
but you need n’t think you can keep on rul- 
ing everybody who comes anywhere near 
you.” 

u I don’t mean to rule you — ” 

“ You’d better not,” she interrupted. 

“ But I ’m going to ask you once more to 
give me the rose.” 

“ I have given it to you,” said Jean, stub- 
bornly. “ If you don’t take it, it ’s because 
you don’t want it.” 

“ I only want it if you ’ll give it to me,” 
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<f ^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

said Putnam, more gently than he had 
spoken before. 

“ Nothing of the sort! You only want to 
have your own way. You ? re a horrid, dicta- 
torial, arrogant, overbearing, conceited man ! 
and I hate you ! ” 

Jean ran down the steps and across the 
lawn toward her own home. 

Putnam got up lazily from the hammock, 
and taking the rose from the table, smiled as 
he put it carefully away in his pocket-book. 

“ I did tease her,” he said, “ but ’t was 
worth it! ” And he smiled again. 

Having held the session of the court of 
inquiry in the library, Miss Esther, after 
leaving Mr. Dodd, was in no mood to receive 
the shock which awaited her on the East 
porch. 

“ Where’s Jean?” she asked, when she 
saw Putnam alone. 

“She got mad at me,” said Putnam, “and 
ran away home.” 

“ One of her usual playful jests, I suppose.” 

“ No,” said Putnam, “ this time she seemed 
very much in earnest.” 


85 


the matrimonial bureau < l§ =f 

“ Oh, she does n’t mean anything, Putnam. 
Don’t take her too seriously.” 

“ I ’m not sure that I shall take her at all,” 
said Putnam. “ She ’s a little spitfire.” 

Miss Esther, clasping her hands in despair, 
was about to speak, when Nora announced 
that Mr. Brewster was on the front veranda. 

Brewster’s dejected air was quite in har- 
mony with Miss Esther’s mood, but she was 
unprepared for the news he brought her. 

“ I am going away,” he said, “ and I have 
come to say good-bye.” 

By a whimsical association of ideas, Miss 
Esther suddenly realized exactly how Chub 
felt when she indulged in her favorite trick 
of sitting flat down on the ground and squeal- 
ing. The elder lady did not squeal, but had 
circumstances permitted it, she would have 
been glad to do so. All in the same day her 
three clients had disappointed her hopes. 
She wrung her hands, tragically. “ One woe 
doth tread upon another’s heels, so fast they 
follow!” she exclaimed. 

“ Yes, I, too, am sorry to go,” said Brew- 
ster. “I have had a very happy summer, 
1 86 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

and you have been very kind to me, Miss 
Esther.” 

“ But you are leaving us very suddenly.” 

“I know it; but there are reasons — good 
reasons.” 

“ But Helen — Miss Fairbanks — does she 
know you ’re going? ” 

“ Oh, yes, she knows. I have just come 
from there.” 

“ And does n’t she care ? ” 

“No, I think not,” said Brewster, with 
his calm dignity. 

“Oh, Mr. Brewster,” cried Miss Esther, 
“ I wish she did care.” 

“ I wish so, too,” he replied. 

“ But have you made allowances for 
Helen’s excessive pride?” 

“ She has n’t made allowances for mine,” 
said Brewster. 

“ Hullo, you people,” cried Lincoln Dodd, 
as he rushed up the driveway in his auto- 
mobile; “is tea ready? I’m nearly starv- 
ing” 

“Not quite,” said Miss Esther; “but it 
soon will be. Come on in.” 


187 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

For the first time that summer, none of the 
girls came over to tea. Obliged to do all 
the honors herself, Miss Esther rose to the 
occasion nobly, and presided with her usual 
grace, her unruffled calm giving no hint of 
the perturbation of spirit beneath. But late 
that evening when a meeting of the conspir- 
ators was held in the library, Miss Esther 
confided to Abraham Lincoln Dodd her 
doubts of the final success of her Matri- 
monial Bureau. 

“To think,” she said, “of that stupid Jean 
having a fight, a real fight with Putnam ! ” 

“Oh, they’re always squabbling,” said 
Lincoln. 

“ Yes, but this time it’s serious. Putnam 
told me so. And now Helen has offended 
Mr. Brewster and he ’s going away, and 
Lillian’s case is equally hopeless.” 

“ Why, what did you find out from father ? ” 

“ Why, it ’s the strangest thing, and I ’m 
not sure that I ought to tell you.” 

“ And I ’m not sure, either, that I ought to 
tell you what Lillian said.” 

“ Well, I must know what you learned, so 
1 88 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

I ’ll tell you what I found out. Your father 
was awfully nice, and he said that he was 
very much in love with Lillian, — very much; 
and he thinks she cares for him. And he 
wants to marry her, but he thinks you 
would n’t like it if he did.” 

“Me! ” exclaimed Dodd; “why of course 
I want him to marry her, and I ’ll tell him so 
so that he will understand it! ” 

“No, no,” said Miss Esther; “he said not 
to let you know anything about it. He did n’t 
even want to suggest the idea to you for fear 
you ’d be displeased.” 

“Well, if that doesn’t beat all! Lillian 
said just the same thing about you. She 
did n’t say right out, you know, that she was 
fond of the Governor, but she said that even 
if she were she could n’t marry him, for she 
felt sure that you would n’t approve of the 
match.” 

“ Me! ” cried Miss Esther; “why of course 
I want her to marry him, and I ’ll tell her so 
so that she will understand it.” 

“No, don’t say a word. She expressly 
said that she did n’t want you to know she 

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had ever had such a thought, for fear it 
would displease you.” 

“ Good gracious ! ” cried Miss Esther, 
exasperated beyond all endurance. “Was 
there ever such a lot of intractable men and 
ridiculous girls.” 

“ Why don’t you give them up ? ” suggested 
Lincoln. 

“Never! I’m going to carry this thing 
through and you ’re going to help me as you 
agreed. I have n’t brought these six people 
together and looked after them all summer, 
and brought them all to the very verge of 
success, to have my plans fail now. Jean and 
Putnam shall be persuaded to make up; 
though I don’t know how it will be accom- 
plished, for he ’s stubbornness itself and she ’s 
just as bad. Helen and Brewster must be 
reconciled, and that ’s harder yet, for she ’s as 
proud as Lucifer and he ’s more so. As to 
your father and Lillian — ” 

“ Oh,” interrupted Dodd, “ if they care for 
each other, surely they can be brought 
around.” 

“ Oh, I don’t know — Lillian is a perverse 
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e ^ > THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

little witch; but anyhow, it shall be done. 
On that I am resolved, and if I don’t succeed 
I will be the first Adams who ever failed in 
a great undertaking.” 

“ And you will succeed,” said Dodd, car- 
ried away by her eloquence. 

“ 1 certainly shall,” said Miss Esther. 


XVIII 


With a solemn earnestness, more than indeed belonged to 
such a trifle. — Othello , v, 2. 

When Brewster left Miss Esther’s house, 
after telling her good-bye, he met Jack 
Remington. 

“ Hullo, Mr. Brewster,” exclaimed Jack; 
“ I thought you had gone away.” 

“ I am going early in the morning,” replied 
Brewster; “and I won’t forget the book I 
promised to send you.” 

Jack turned and walked along by Brew- 
ster’s side. “ I ’m sorry you ’re going,” he 
said; “we’ve been good chums, haven’t 
we ? ” 

“Yes, we have,” said Brewster, heartily; 
and then somehow the conversation seemed 
to flag. Jack was dimly conscious of this and 
tried to relieve the situation. 

“ I ’ve just been over to Cousin Helen’s 
house,” he said, conversationally. 

“ Have you ? ” said Brewster, with an 
192 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ 

unexpected exhibition of interest in his 
tone. 

“ Yes, and she gave me this,” said Jack, 
producing a knife from his pocket; “ see, it 
has a saw-blade and a screw-driver and a lot 
of things.” 

“ So it has,” said Brewster, looking at 
Jack’s treasure critically. “ It ’s much better 
than the one I gave you last week.” 

“ Yes, it is; and what do you think, Cousin 
Helen traded with me. She gave me this 
and I gave her that one you gave me.” 

“You did? What made you think she 
wanted it?” 

“ Why, she asked me for it. She said if I ’d 
give her that one she ’d give me this.” 

“ What did she want of an old knife like 
that?” 

“ I don’t know. I was showing it to her 
and she said she wanted it, and so we 
traded.” 

“ Did she know I gave it to you ? ” 

“ Yes, I told her it was an old one of yours ; 
and besides she saw your initials on it, but 
she did n’t mind that.” 


i93 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Oh, she did n’t ! 99 Brewster walked on in 
silence for a moment. “Jack,” he said, “ it ’s 
lucky you have that new knife. It is just 
what we want to use in working on the ship. 
I ’ll come over to-morrow and we can finish 
it all up.” 

“ To-morrow!” exclaimed Jack; “ I 
thought you were going away in the morn- 
ing.” 

“ I ’ve changed my mind,” said Brewster. 

If Jack was surprised at Brewster’s sudden 
change of plans, Helen was none the less so 
when the next afternoon she saw him walk 
in at her gate. 

“ How do you do,” she said, in her calm, 
sweet way. “ I thought you had left us.” 

“ No,” said Brewster, easily ; “ I ’ve de- 
cided to stay a while longer.” 

He dropped naturally into his accustomed 
place at the end of the veranda. He had been 
at the Fairbanks house a great deal that 
summer and in consequence had assumed 
the air of a privileged guest. 

“ It ’s a beautiful day,” said Brewster, 
gazing affably into the atmosphere. 
i94 


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“ Yes,” said Helen, agreeingly. “It is a 
good day for reading aloud; and as you are 
going to stay longer, we may have time to 
finish the book we were reading yester- 
day.” 

This was a distinct concession on Helen’s 
part, and Brewster accepted it as such. The 
book in question had been the cause of a 
violent argument the day before, which had 
resulted in his sudden determination to leave 
Whitfield. The immediate theme of the dis- 
cussion had been certain ethical propositions 
which Brewster upheld and which seemed 
to him the very mainsprings of masculine ac- 
tion, but which Helen had denounced with 
a scornful pride that acknowledged no excep- 
tions. So positive had been her assertions 
that he had been unable to escape the con- 
viction that, knowing his views, she had de- 
liberately intended to arraign him personally. 

Helen had not meant this personal appli- 
cation — at least not to the extent that Brew- 
ster assumed. With all her uncompromising 
positivism and her insistence upon theoretical 
perfection, she was more than willing in in- 

*95 


< ^’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

dividual cases to ignore short-comings, even 
in important directions, for the sake of the 
things which she found good. But Brewster 
did not know this, and when she had so 
specifically condemned traits which he knew 
he possessed, he was forced to believe that 
her opinion of him was unfavorable and un- 
changeable. And as he was conscious of his 
own growing regard for her, it seemed to him 
that the only thing to do was to go away at 
once. 

The trifling episode of the penknife had 
changed all this. It seemed to prove that 
Helen’s well-defined laws were capable of 
being at least slightly affected by the per- 
sonal element. If she had cared enough for 
his old penknife to secure it for herself, then 
she had shown that there was a vulnerable 
point in her armor, and Brewster was not 
lacking in courage. 

It was characteristic of him that the slight 
favorable indication should impart to his 
attitude an air of assured success. His exul- 
tation, which was out of all proportion to its 
cause, was evident. This was a mistake on 
196 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Brewster’s part, for Helen saw it and re- 
sented it. And so he defeated his own ends; 
for the girl, especially sensitive to Brewster’s 
moods, was annoyed at his mysterious air of 
triumph. 

“ Certainly,” he said, most amiably; “I 
should be more than glad to read the book 
to you if I may; but this afternoon we are 
all going over to the Crossways Inn to sup- 
per. I have just come from Miss Esther’s, 
who sent your invitation by me.” 

“ Is everybody going?” asked Helen. 

“ Yes, in Lincoln’s automobile.” 

“ Oh, we ’re all going together. Yes ; 
certainly I will go.” 

“ I thought I would drive you over my- 
self, — may I ? ” 

“ Thank you, no. I prefer to go with the 
others.” 

“ Very well,” said Brewster; “ we ’ll go 
with them, then.” 

Chub crawled through the hedge and 
trotted across the lawn to the Adams house. 
Finding nobody on the East porch, she wan- 

197 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU e ^r > 

dered aimlessly about the grounds and finally 
found herself on the path which led down to 
the brook. This was forbidden territory, and 
Chub had not forgotten it, but this afternoon 
she was in an irresponsible frame of mind 
and paid no heed to the unwelcome voice 
of conscience. Besides, where the bridge 
was there grew some wonderful scarlet blos- 
soms, and these the young explorer desired 
for her very own. Even from the edge of 
the lawn she could see them, but beyond, 
where the wood began, there was darkness. 
The temptation to go down there was irre- 
sistible, so on the baby went. 

The scarlet blossoms were achieved with- 
out mishap, and then, lured by the fascina- 
tions of the unknown, she strayed a little 
further into the wood. 

“ I don’t thee any puthy willowth,” she 
said, “ but Uncle Linkum thaid they lived 
here. I ’ll wait a li’le while and p’rapth I ’ll 
hear thome mew.” 

She sat down in the shade of a big tree 
to wait. She did not hear the mewing of 
the pussy-willows, but she found plenty 
198 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

of things to interest her. A butterfly came. 
A black beetle labored with a leaf at her very 
feet, and she asked him questions concerning 
the welfare of his family. A squirrel chat- 
tered from a tree-top, and she scolded back 
at him. A bird perched on a dead twig and 
sang his very best song right at her. Then 
she sang — and then she went to sleep, the 
scarlet blossoms tightly clutched in her 
arms. 

Chub’s propensity for getting lost was 
recognized by the members of her family. 
As she explained it, she “ just losed herself,” 
and if she had thought of it, she might have 
added that the losing process was no part 
of her prearranged plans. All was well, and 
presently she was lost. Then people came 
and found her, and all was well again. It 
had never failed. She knew that somebody 
would eventually find her. 

But on this occasion there was no con- 
scious feeling of being lost. She slept peace- 
fully, and the butterfly came back and hov- 
ered over the scarlet blossoms in her arms. 
The squirrel, with the insistent curiosity of 

199 


*1^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU * = ^' 

his kind, came down from his tree and looked 
at the baby at close range. The bird still 
continued his song — a sort of lullaby now 
- — and Chub slept, while the people up at 
her home and at the Adams house began the 
search. 

It was Putnam who found her, and he 
picked her up, still fast asleep, and carried 
her toward the house. Jean met him near 
the bridge. It was the first time he had seen 
her since the episode of the rose, and he 
wondered what attitude she would assume 
toward him. 

“ Where did you find her ? ” she asked. 

“ In the woods — asleep,” he replied, 
shortly. 

Jean turned and walked beside him to- 
ward Chub’s home. Neither spoke. Pre- 
sently the baby wakened. The scarlet flowers 
were still clasped tightly in her dimpled hand 
— crushed, perhaps, but they were none the 
less effective for all that. 

She looked sleepily up into Putnam’s eyes. 

“ For you,” she said, offering the wilted 
blossoms. 


200 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Did you pick them for me ? ” said 
Putnam. 

“ I don’t know ; but I will give them to 
you becauth I love you.” 

Putnam took the flowers. “ Thank you, 
sweetheart,” he said; but he looked squarely 
at Jean. 

Jean stared straight ahead, but she saw his 
expression. 

“ Do you care for flowers ? ” she asked. 

“ Yes, when they are given to me.” 

“ Not otherwise ? ” 

“ Never but once otherwise.” 

“ When was that? ” 

“ Oh, long ago.” 

“ Before you knew me ? ” 

“Well, it was before I knew you as well 
as I do now.” 

“ Tell me about it,” said Jean. 

“ I don’t think you ’d be interested in the 
story.” 

“ Yeth,” said Chub, “ tell me thtory.” 

“Well,” began Putnam, “once upon a 
time there was a little girl.” 

“ A very pretty little girl,” said Jean. 

201 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < A§ = * 

“ And she had a rose,” continued Putnam, 
“ and a man — ” 

“ A perfectly horrid man,” said Jean. 

“ Asked her for it,” Putnam went on; 
“ and what do you think ? ” 

“ She gave it to him,” said Chub, “ becauth 
she loved him.” 

“So she did,” said Putnam, “and he car- 
ried it with him always after that.” 

“ Ith he got it yet? ” asked Chub. 

“ Yes,” said Putnam; “he has it yet.” 

“What for?” questioned Chub; “ it mutht 
be all dead.” 

When the truant had been returned to her 
anxious family, Putnam and Jean went back 
to Miss Esther’s. 

“ Had you finished the story of the rose ? ” 
she asked. 

“Why, would you like to hear more of 
it?” 

“Not particularly; but I would like to 
have some one care enough for my roses to 
carry them always and always.” 

Without a word Putnam produced his 
202 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

pocket-book and took from it a withered 
rose. 

“ This is the one you gave me,” said he. 
“So it is,” said Jean, complacently; “I 
knew you ? d keep it.” 


XIX 


She is beautiful and therefore to be woo’d. — / Henry VI, 

v, 3- 

The horse had seen better days — better 
in the sense that he had been in his ear- 
lier youth a better horse. Grown old in 
the service of a livery stable in the town 
of Farmington — the next one to Whit- 
field on the left as you go from Utica — he 
still maintained a sort of dignity and abso- 
lute safety which made him a valuable asset 
when his owner had a request from timid 
women for what is technically known as 
a “ rig.” 

He drew a phaeton of the type built on the 
lines of Central New York styles of carriage 
building — distinctly unattractive and un- 
graceful. Driving the horse was a young 
woman whose impetuosity urged her steed 
to greater efforts in the matter of speed. 
The horse wore no “ blinders,” and when 
his driver told him to get up, and beat him 
204 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

gingerly with a whip, he glanced casually 
back at her over his shoulder, as who should 
say, “ If I go faster I may be very dangerous.” 
So he strolled on, and Julia Fowler’s efforts, 
directed toward swifter locomotion, met with 
no response from him. He knew his busi- 
ness. He was a safe horse, and he did not 
propose to risk his reputation by any undue 
exertion. 

Miss Fowler herself was of a type dis- 
tinctly different from that represented by her 
equipage. She could by no chance have 
been the product of Central New York. 
Possibly her ancestors might have been, but 
she was urban to her finger tips. Suburban- 
ity had no accent on her appearance. Her 
beauty was of a spectacular order. She was 
the type of the twentieth century — its best 
expression — and she had come to Farm- 
ington to rest at the boarding-house of one 
Mrs. Moore. She had tired of it in a week, 
and her excursion to Whitfield was for the 
purpose of finding a place which might 
prove more attractive to her exacting de- 
mands. 


205 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

She had been told that a certain Mrs. 
Hemingway in Whitfield conducted a board- 
ing-house, and she was in search of this 
establishment when she caught sight of the 
Adams house. This seemed an ideal place 
to spend a few weeks, and being by no 
means timid, Miss Fowler concluded to 
make the attempt to induce the owner of the 
place to take her in for a time. She turned 
in at the gate, and when she saw Miss 
Esther on the veranda she was quite positive 
that she had found exactly what she was 
looking for. 

Miss Esther watched the stranger as she 
jumped out of the phaeton, ran up the steps, 
and without invitation seated herself in one 
of the large rocking-chairs. 

“ Don’t mind me,” she said, pleasantly. “ I 
always come in like that. I am Julia Fowler, 
and I am staying over in Farmington, but 
I don’t like it there, and somebody told me 
that Whitfield was lovely, and that Mrs. 
Hemingway kept a very nice boarding- 
house. I was on my way there when I 
noticed this house, and I thought I should 
206 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

like it here a great deal better. So won’t 
you please take me for a couple of weeks? 
I ’m awfully good-natured and I won’t make 
a bit of trouble.” 

Miss Esther looked at her visitor and came 
to the conclusion that she was the most 
beautiful woman she had ever seen. 

It was not only a beauty of feature and 
coloring; but the vivacity and charm of Julia 
Fowler were of a degree which exceeded 
anything Miss Esther had ever known. 
Though her manner was gay and informal 
to the verge of sauciness, yet it was tinged 
with a delightful deference, and Miss Esther 
proved herself no exception to the rule that 
whoever met Julia Fowler fell immediately 
under the spell of her wonderful charm. 

“ Nonsense, child,” said Miss Esther, 
smiling at her pretty visitor; a I don’t take 
boarders, but you will like it at Mrs. Hem- 
ingway’s, I ’m sure. She can make you very 
comfortable.” 

“ But I like this house so much better,” 
said Julia, coaxingly; “ and I’m sure you 
have room enough.” 


207 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Yes, of course, there are rooms enough 
in the Adams house, but we never take 
boarders.” 

“ Oh, is this the Adams house ? ” asked 
Julia ; “ and are you Miss Adams, Miss 
Esther Adams ? I have often heard of you 
in Farmington.” 

“ Yes, I am the one,” and Miss Esther 
smiled graciously. Somehow people always 
smiled graciously on Miss Fowler. 

“ Oh, then do let me stay. I have heard 
so much about your house and your library; 
and I ’ll keep to myself when you don’t 
want me around, and I ’ll be jolly good 
company when you do. You live alone, 
don’t you? ” 

Like a flash Miss Esther realized what 
it would be to have a young woman with 
such compelling attractions in her house, or, 
indeed, for that matter, in Whitfield at all. 
The three affairs which she was managing 
seemed to be complicated enough as it was, 
without an additional disturbing element. 
Putnam, she knew, would rave over her. 
Lincoln Dodd would flirt desperately, and 
208 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

she felt sure that Winthrop Brewster must 
also inevitably succumb to this bewitching 
beauty. It was apparent, then, to Miss 
Esther that it would never do to have Miss 
Fowler remain in Whitfield. 

Miss Esther’s three girls were sweet and 
attractive, but she well knew that they would 
not shine by comparison with this exquis- 
ite and experienced woman of the world. 
Though probably not older in years, Miss 
Fowler was far rqore sophisticated than the 
Whitfield girls, and her own personality, 
helped by her social training, gave her a 
fascination which could not otherwise be 
attained. 

The imminent danger of this catastrophe 
almost stunned Miss Esther. Something 
must be done, and that quickly, to prevent 
Miss Fowler’s staying in Whitfield. In con- 
sequence her attitude towards her visitor 
changed instantly. 

“ Yes, I live alone,” she said, “ and it is 
from preference. I have small need for 
company, for I am never lonely, and I 
could not think of taking a boarder even 

209 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

for a short time. Pray do not ask me 
again.” 

“ Indeed, I shall ask you again,” said 
Julia, with one of her most ingratiating 
smiles. “I shall keep on coaxing until I 
persuade you to say yes.” 

Had circumstances been otherwise, no- 
thing would have pleased Miss Esther bet- 
ter than to have granted the request and 
taken this most attractive young woman 
into her house for a fortnight. This fact 
made it difficult for her to continue her 
refusals ; but, awake to the seriousness of 
the situation, she answered decidedly, “ No, 
I shall never say yes. I am not of a vacillat- 
ing nature, and rarely change my mind. It 
is quite impossible for me to take you. Now 
that I think of it, I don’t believe that you 
would be satisfied at Mrs. Hemingway’s, 
either. They are plain people, and live very 
plainly.” 

“ That would just suit me,” said Julia. 
u I came up here for rest and quiet, and 
I love a simple country home.” 

“ But it is very dull in Whitfield,” con- 


210 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

tinued Miss Esther. “ There are no gayeties 
of any sort.” 

“ That would just suit me, too. I have 
a surfeit of gayety at home in the winter.” 

Baffled at every turn, and determined to 
accomplish her end, Miss Esther deliber- 
ately drew upon her imagination. “ There 
are five little children at Mrs. Hemingway’s, 
and they are a most spoiled, disagreeable 
lot. I am sure they ’d make your life a 
burden there.” 

“ That alters the case,” said Julia, decid- 
edly. “ I detest spoiled children. How old 
are they? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said Miss Esther, a little 
vaguely, which was only natural, consider- 
ing the fact that there were really no chil- 
dren at the Hemingway house. “ About 
four or five years old, I think.” 

“ Oh, I don’t mind such little children,” 
said Julia, airily; “ but I dislike them when 
they get to be about ten years old.” 

“ Oh, there are several as old as that, 
too,” declared Miss Esther, whose imagina- 
tion was equal to juveniles of any age. 

21 1 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Then I won’t go there,” said Julia. “ I ’m 
surprised that she has any boarders. I think 
you might let me stay here.” 

“ I asked you not to mention that again,” 
said Miss Esther, with a sudden exhibition 
of the Adams dignity; “ but if you really 
want country home life, there is a very 
delightful place at Westfield that I am sure 
would please you.” 

“ Where is Westfield?” 

“ About eight miles the other side of 
Farmington.” 

“ I ’ll drive over there to-morrow,” said 
Julia, “ and look at the place, and if I don’t 
like it I ’ll come back here.” 

This bit of bravado was accompanied by 
such a winning smile that Miss Esther could 
not respond as sternly as she would have 
liked to do. 

“Will you have tea on the veranda or on 
Lieutenant Adams’s porch?” asked Nora, 
appearing at the door. 

“On the East porch,” said Miss Esther, 
shortly. 

“Oh, mayn’t I stay to tea?” exclaimed 
212 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ 

Julia. “ Please let me. I ’ll be very good, 
and go away immediately after.” 

“ Excuse me one moment,” said Miss 
Esther, without answering her guest’s ques- 
tion. 

She went to the East porch where she 
knew Lincoln Dodd was reading. He was 
the only one of her guests at home. 

“ Lincoln,” she exclaimed, “ come to my 
rescue, and come quick. What under the 
sun am I going to do?” 

“ What in the world ’s the matter? ” asked 
Dodd. 

“ Oh, it ’s dreadful. The most beautiful 
girl in the world is on the front veranda.” 

“ Command my services,” said Lincoln, 
rising with alacrity. “ What makes her so 
dreadful ? Is she a maniac ? ” 

“No, indeed. I only wish she were. 
She ’s perfectly charming.” 

“ What am I to do for you ? Do you want 
me to marry her ? ” 

“Don’t be foolish. But don’t you see I 
expect the people home to tea at any min- 
ute now, and if any of those men see that 

213 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

raving beauty, they ’ll fall in love with her 
on the spot.” 

“ Of course they will,” said Dodd. “ Give 
her to me. I ’ll take her off to a desert 
island.” 

“No, but I want you to take her home in 
your automobile. That ’s the only way I can 
get rid of her.” 

“Where is her home? How did she 
come? ” 

“ She came in a forlorn old gig, but I can 
let Michael take that home for her. And 
mind, now, you ’re not to make yourself too 
entertaining, or ask her to come again, or 
let her know that I have any young men 
staying here. She ’s the most dangerous 
thing I ’ve ever seen. You get your ma- 
chine and come around in front just as if 
you were going out for a drive, and I ’ll do 
the rest.” 

“ All right,” said Dodd. “ I ’ll go, but I 
don’t know when I ’ll be back. Don’t wait 
tea for me.” 

“Now don’t go scouring all over the 
country with her. She lives in Farming- 
214 







SUPPOSE YOU TAKE MISS FOWLER HOME 









































































•• 
































THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

ton, and you can go there and back in an 
hour.” 

“ Perhaps I can and perhaps I can’t,” said 
Dodd, as he ran down the steps. 

“And hurry,” called Miss Esther after 
him. “ There ’s no time to be lost.” 

Miss Esther returned to the veranda, and 
in a few moments Lincoln came whirling 
up from the stables. 

“ Ah, Mr. Dodd,” called Miss Esther, “ are 
you going anywhere in particular?” 

“No,” said Lincoln, pleasantly; “just out 
for a little spin.” 

“Well, then, suppose you take Miss 
Fowler home. My dear,” she said, turning 
to the young lady, “ you ’d like to drive over 
with Mr. Dodd, would n’t you?” 

“ Oh, ever so much,” cried Julia, showing 
her most engaging dimples and laughing 
down at Dodd. “ But what will become of 
my fractious steed?” 

“ Michael can drive him home for you,” 
said Miss Esther. “ Run along quick, now. 
Mr. Dodd does n’t like to wait.” 

As the pair disappeared, Miss Esther drew 

215 


* 1 $* THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

a long breath of relief. Her manoeuvre had 
been accomplished none too quickly, for 
they were hardly out of sight before Brew- 
ster, Putnam, and George Washington Dodd 
came strolling in to tea. 

“ That was a narrow escape,” she thought. 
“The times would have been very much out 
of joint if I had not set them right. I have 
rescued the Matrimonial Bureau from the 
jaws of one more danger.” 


XX 

Make feasts, invite friends and proclaim the banns. — Tam- 
ing of the Shrew, iii, 2. 

The three men came up to the East porch 
where Miss Esther gave them their tea. She 
was plainly in a mood of the utmost com- 
placency. Nor were her guests less compla- 
cent. George Washington Dodd, with the 
knowledge that he had arranged his little 
comedy quite to his liking, was placidly 
awaiting its working out. Brewster was in 
a seventh heaven. The trifling affair of the 
penknife was to him a wind-proving straw, 
and, always self-confident, he felt now not 
the slightest doubt of his ability to win Helen 
Fairbanks. 

However, as time went on and the three 
girls did not appear, the edge of Miss Esther’s 
complacency was dulled, and she grew more 
and more perturbed. 

“ I don’t see what can be keeping them,” 
she said. “ They said they ’d come over for 

217 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

tea, and then we would all start for the Cross- 
ways together.” 

“ Where’s Lincoln?” said his father. 

“ He went off to do an errand for me,” ' 
said Miss Esther, casually. “ He ’ll be back 
very soon. I told him particularly not to 
dawdle by the way. If we start by six we ’ll 
have plenty of time.” 

But at half-past five Dodd had not returned, 
nor had any of the girls come. Miss Esther 
began to show signs of nervousness. Put- 
nam’s brow clouded, and the senior Dodd 
began to fidget. 

At twenty minutes to six a decided gloom 
had settled upon the whole party, and at ten 
minutes of six, consternation was palpably 
apparent. 

“ I can’t imagine why those girls don’t 
come,” said Miss Esther. 

“At least one of them,” said Putnam. 
“ She said she ’d be here at five.” 

Miss Esther smiled happily at her cousin; 
but her face clouded again as she said, “ I 
wish Lincoln would come, then we could 
start and pick up the girls on the way.” 

218 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

Six o’clock struck, and still there were no 
signs of the expected ones. 

“ I believe I ’ll go over to Miss Fair- 
banks’s,” said Brewster, “and see why they 
don’t come.” 

“ I ’ll go with you,” said Putnam. “ I hope 
nothing has happened to her.” 

“ Your pronoun is ambiguous,” said Dodd, 
“ but never mind; we understand.” 

Before the investigating party could start, 
the automobile came romping up the drive- 
way, and in it were Lincoln Dodd and the 
three girls. They all seemed to be in un- 
usually good spirits. 

“We ’ve had the loveliest ride,” cried Jean. 
“We’ve been over to Farmington! ” 

“What! ” cried Miss Esther. 

“Yes,” began Helen; “ we went with Mr. 
Dodd and the loveliest — ” 

“ Yes, yes,” interrupted Miss Esther, “ I ’ve 
no doubt you had a lovely time.” 

“ She ’s certainly a peach,” said Lincoln, 
winking at Miss Esther. 

“ Oh, you mean your automobile. Has 
she acted well to-day ? She certainly is 

219 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

a beauty,” said Miss Esther, fearful lest he 
refer more explicitly to Julia Fowler. 

“ Yes, she certainly is a beauty,” replied 
Dodd; “and she acted very well.” 

“ Come, come,” said Miss Esther, still a 
bit nervously; “ we must be starting.” 

“All right,” said Lillian; “ and on the way 
I ’ll tell you how Mr. Dodd picked us girls 
up and took us over to Farmington. As a 
traveling companion we had the most beau- 
tiful — ” 

“ Do you consider Lincoln Dodd such a 
raving beauty,” said Miss Esther, looking at 
him critically. 

“ Oh, I did n’t mean him,” replied Lillian; 

« j » 

“Oh, then you mean Helen? We all ac- 
knowledge her beauty.” 

“I wish she had meant me,” said Helen; 
“ but she meant — ” 

“ She meant me!” cried Jean, whose quick 
wit perceived that Miss Esther did not care 
to discuss Julia Fowler. 

“ You would be a beautiful traveling com- 
panion,” said Putnam, judicially, “ if your 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

hat were on straight and that bunchy fluff 
which is supposed to decorate the back of 
your neck had n’t twisted itself around under 
one ear.” 

“ That ’s where it belongs,” said Jean. 
“ That ’s where they ’re wearing them now, 
and my hat is at the very latest fashionable 
angle. I ’m not one of those women who get 
all disheveled just because they take a little 
automobile ride.” 

“We ’re obliged to believe your state- 
ment,” said Lincoln Dodd; “ but you are 
certainly giving a very good imitation of the 
type.” 

“Well, I don’t look a bit more tumbled 
than your friend Julia did. Her veil hung 
by one pin.” 

“Julia who? ” asked Putnam, looking up. 

Jean caught Miss Esther’s bothered look, 
and good-naturedly helped her out. “ I don’t 
mean Julia, exactly,” she said. “I mean — er 
— Alice.” 

“Alice who? ” inquired the elder Dodd. 

“Alice Ben Bolt,” said Miss Esther, 
shortly. 


221 


e ^ ) THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Oh, that one ? By the way, did anybody 
ever remember her? I always hear people 
tunefully inquiring.” 

“ I did n’t know she wore an automobile 
coat,” said Lincoln, doubtfully. “ At any 
rate, her costume must have been awfully 
queer.” 

“ How do you know what she wore ? ” 
said Lillian. “ Have you ever seen her pic- 
ture ? ” 

“ No, but the song says they fitted a slab 
of granite so gray; it must have been a very 
superior tailor that could do it.” 

“ All women look well in gray,” said 
Brewster, glancing approvingly at Helen. 

“ Do you know, I like green best,” said 
George Washington Dodd, staring at Lillian’s 
crisp linen costume. 

“ This isn’t green; it ’s reseda,” said Lil- 
lian, scornfully; “and if I’d known you’d 
like it, I would n’t have worn it.” 

When Dodd admired Lillian’s gown Miss 
Esther looked distinctly pleased, but when 
that young lady spoke so rudely in reply her 
hopes fell again. Dodd, however, realized 


nt ’ THE matrimonial bureau 

that she was reminding him of his almost 
forgotten role, and taking his cue, he re- 
plied, “ I don’t like it. I said I liked green.” 

“Huh! ” said Lillian. 

Crossways Inn is one of the few survivals 
of that class of hostelry that had its begin- 
nings in the eighteenth century. Around 
many of them hamlets sprang up, — some 
grew into cities. In the stage-coach days 
they were the resting places of the weary 
travelers. When the railroads came the 
travelers rushed by in trains, and the inns 
were forgotten. 

No hamlet had sprung up about Cross- 
ways. Standing at the intersection of two 
country roads it had held its own through 
a century and a half of varying fortunes. 
There was little travel thereabouts, until the 
automobiles came. Then, after a time, the 
drivers of the machines came to understand 
that at Crossways there was to be had a 
dinner like grandmother used to cook, and 
now scarcely a day went by without some 
merry party from Richfield Springs, Farm- 

223 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

ington, or even Utica, making a pilgrimage 
in the direction of the fried chicken and 
green corn in the season. 

It was at a dinner of this sort that the 
Matrimonial Bureau entertained its clients. 
If gayety be a proof of appreciation, then 
were the clients, though unsuspecting of 
their claim to that title, deeply apprecia- 
tive. 

" This would be a fine place to establish 
a rest-cure,” said Lillian. " It is the quietest 
place I ever saw.” 

" If you ’ll establish one,” said George 
Washington Dodd, " I ’ll be press agent for 
you. I ’ll engage to get you a lot of patients.” 

"I’ll do better than that,” said Lincoln; 
“ I ’ll be a patient.” 

"Good idea,” said Putnam; "you need 
a rest-cure.” 

" He does,” said his father; "he certainly 
needs to be cured of the resting habit. It 
has become chronic with him.” 

" What will be your course of treatment ? ” 
asked Helen. 

" At first I shall only have the patients 
224 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

stop resting three times a day,” said Lillian, 
consideringly. 

“ For meals? ” suggested Lincoln. 

“Yes; and then after that, oftener, until 
they can go without resting for an hour at 
a time.” 

“ A whole hour? ” asked Jean. 

“Yes; and if they show signs of a relapse 
I shall make them work.” 

“Work!” exclaimed Lincoln; “then I 
withdraw my application.” 

“ Oh,” said Lillian, “ 1 don’t mean manual 
labor; I mean brain work.” 

“ Oh, that would be the same to me as 
resting. My brain works automatically with- 
out any exertion on my part.” 

“ I ’ve often thought so,” observed Put- 
nam. 

“Yes,” said Lincoln; “it’s a great con- 
venience. I just set it going and then I go 
off and leave it.” 

“ Where did you leave it to-night ? ” asked 
Jean, innocently. 

“ I left it at home, working out a great 
problem. You see, Miss Esther and I — ” 

225 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ This is good pie,” said Miss Esther, 
hurriedly. 

“ It is,” said Lincoln. “ As I was say- 
ing, Miss Esther and I are very much wor- 
ried — ” 

“This is good pie,” said Miss Esther, 
glaring at him. 

“ Yes, I said it was,” said Lincoln. “ Miss 
Esther and I are trying very hard — ” 

“ This is good pie,” remarked Miss Esther, 
determinedly. 

“ That speech is getting to be a habit with 
you, Cousin Esther,” said Putnam. “Why 
don’t you take something for it ? ” 

“Well,” said Lincoln’s father, “if you 
have quite finished that exciting story about 
yourself and Miss Esther, I will tell you 
a little story. Miss Hastings and I — ” 

“ This is good pie,” said Lillian, blushing 
furiously. 

“ It seems to have gone to your head,” 
remarked Jean, looking at Lillian, inquir- 
ingly. 

“Miss Hastings and I,” went on Dodd, 
“ are engaged to be married.” 

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To say that Miss Esther’s face beamed 
with delight, would be an inadequate ex- 
pression of the illumination that took place 
on her countenance. She fairly radiated 
happiness and coruscated with joy. 

“ One home, and two on bases,” cried Lin- 
coln, exultantly; but no one heard him in 
the tumult and the shouting consequent upon 
the announcement. 

As is usual with the inspirers of great 
movements, Miss Esther was entirely for- 
gotten at the moment of final triumph. Ob- 
livious to this, however, she sat in silent 
rapture, gloating over her first and irrevoc- 
able success. 

“Ah! King John,” she said, though not 
aloud, “ at last Victory doth perch upon one 
of my dancing banners; and as to the other 
two, I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my 
mouth, let no dog bark ! ” 


XXI 


A contract of true love to celebrate. — TheTempest , iv, i. 

Whitfield’s observance of holidays was in 
the nature of a religious rite. The patriot- 
ism of the Fourth of July, as shown in the 
firing of the anvil in the early morning, the 
speeches in the grove, and the reading of the 
Declaration of Independence, invariably by 
Dr. Bushnell, was all that the Father of his 
Country could have desired. Christmas and 
Thanksgiving had lost none of their original 
character. The flippant might have observed 
the groaning of boards from one end of the 
town to the other. May Day was a triumph 
of maidens crowned with wilted wild flowers 
holding court in rickety bowers. Other days 
had their importance; in fact any holiday 
which had any excuse for being was seized 
upon and made much of by the Whitfield 
citizens. 

But above and beyond all others, in the 
hearts of the countrymen, was Circus Day. 

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For the days intervening between the post- 
ing of the bills announcing its coming and 
the fateful day of its arrival, there were fierce 
debates at the post-office and at the black- 
smith shop concerning the relative merits of 
the hippopotamus and the other animals. 
The postmaster himself averred that the man- 
eating tiger and the hippopotamus, whose 
wide-opened jaws showed glistening teeth 
of vast size, were much more fearsome beasts 
than the Behemoth of Holy Writ, and al- 
though this staggered the ultra-orthodox, 
yet were they fain to believe it. 

The fact that the people of Whitfield had 
seen for many successive years the same 
posters representing the same gaudily attired 
ladies whose skirts were the soul of wit 
itself, poised on toe-tip upon the same madly 
careering charger, in no way interfered with 
their interest in them. 

This interest perennially expressed itself 
in long and deep arguments, embracing 
various views which resolved themselves 
finally into a generally commendatory con- 
demnation. 


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The laws of the Medes and Persians were 
laxly obeyed in comparison with the un- 
written but traditional law which demanded 
that every citizen take his or her nearest 
child relative to see the show. Census re- 
ports, however, showed the proportion of 
about one child to seventeen grown people. 
But this rather aided than hindered the 
law-abiding citizens, and uncles, aunts, and 
cousins cheerfully accompanied their partic- 
ular portion of the juvenile audience. 

The fact that there were no children in 
the Adams house in no wise disconcerted 
Miss Esther and her guests. They appro- 
priated Jack and Chub, and days before the 
circus, had arranged to escort them. Jack 
announced that he had already been invited 
to attend the function by Dr. Bushnell, but 
this, of course, made no difference. Chub, 
being unattached, graciously signified her 
willingness to attend. 

“ I have theen the thircuth,” Chub an- 
nounced. “ It ith on the big, high fenth. 
There are lionth and ’pottymutheth and 
a beauty horth with a lovely lady on it 
230 


<r ^=’ THE matrimonial bureau 

— oh, a lovely lady, jutht like Couthin 
Helen.” 

“I noticed the picture,” said Brewster. 
“ It is indeed just like Miss Fairbanks.” 

u But that is n’t the real circus,” explained 
Helen. “ Those are only the pictures of 
what you are going to see when you get 
there.” 

66 Oh,” said Chub; “ and will you weally 
wide on the horth on your tippy-toeth? ” 

“ If she does n’t, somebody else will,” said 
Brewster. 

Another traditional law required that the 
country people for miles around, as well as 
the villagers, should assemble at the railway 
station to see the circus train come in. As 
its arrival was inconsiderately timed at four 
in the morning, this necessitated early rising. 
But this necessity was cheerfully met, the 
more so in that it made Circus Day just that 
much longer. 

At the Adams house all the traditions 
were strictly observed. Alarm-clocks were 
set for half-past three, and after a hasty cup 
of coffee Lincoln hustled Miss Esther, his 

231 


r ^=» THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

father, and Putnam into the automobile, 
picked up Brewster and the three girls, and 
they reached the station just in time for the 
first act of the day’s play. 

To the men of the party the sight was 
a novel one, and not uninteresting. The sun 
was rising much as usual, although George 
Washington Dodd remarked that he thought 
the sun was always up a few feet in the 
morning. He was not given to getting up 
solely to see the spectacle, and though he 
had a dim idea that there were such things 
as sunrises, raved over by poets and such 
persons, he found the picturesqueness of the 
real thing of a character to call forth approv- 
ing remarks from him. “ Pretty good work 
for such a young sun,” he said, looking at 
the long streaks of light that shot across the 
fields and made a spectacular gathering of 
the otherwise commonplace crowd that 
swarmed over the railroad tracks. Into this 
crowd the locomotive puffed and snorted, 
and children shrieked with delight, while 
their elders — though hardly less vocifer- 
ous, were no less eager. Vehicles of all 
232 


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descriptions lined the roadway. Luncheon 
baskets were in evidence in the democrat 
wagons. There was a superfluity of whiskers 
of varying shades of color and cut, and alpaca 
dresses, still showing the wrinkles of long- 
time packing, gave evidence that the holiday 
spirit was rampant in the hearts, even of the 
staid grandmothers and the mothers. 

“ I ’ll bet,” said Lincoln, “ that every one of 
them is possessed of some haircloth chairs, 
and is distinctly proud of a certain bunch of 
wax fruit under a glass bell in the parlor.” 

The small boys stood about, ecstatically 
rubbing bare foot against bare leg, and let- 
ting off sympathetic grunts of helpfulness 
as the men of the circus train pushed and 
shoved and lifted the big wagons and other 
paraphernalia off the cars. From one of the 
closed cages came the roar of a lion. Little 
girls clutched their mothers’ hands in an 
agony of fear and delight. These sounds 
were the foretaste of the joys to come. 

The people who had come from the sur- 
rounding country prepared to make a full 
day of it camped under the trees in the grove 

2 33 


<^> THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU < 1§ = ' 

near the circus grounds. The men sat about 
and discussed the outlook for the crops, while 
the women prepared a breakfast. The chil- 
dren stared, wide-open-eyed, at the closed 
cages, from which from time to time there 
issued strangely fascinating growlings of 
wild beasts. The circus men laid out the 
ring and raised the tent, and the side-show 
men, being quick in action, insistently pro- 
claimed the presence of the bearded lady, 
the educated pig, the living skeleton, and the 
strong man who could shiver rocks with his 
fist. From the top of the big tent-pole a wire 
was stretched, and from the dizzy height 
a wonderful woman, clad in tightly fitting 
pink, slid boldly to the ground. This was in 
the nature of a daring advertisement of the 
wonderful, magnificent, marvelous, myriad of 
startling feats to be seen during the perform- 
ance. 

“Well, I swan!” exclaimed an elderly 
man, with whiskers of an ancient design; 
“ I should think she ’d of fell off ’n that slim 
wire.” 

But the villagers, not being obliged to 
2 34 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

camp under the trees, returned to their 
homes for breakfast. In celebration of Cir- 
cus Day, and incidentally because it might 
materially assist her plans, Miss Esther had 
a house-party, and the clients of her Bureau 
made merry at the Adams house breakfast. 

“ We ’ll see the morning parade,” said 
George Washington Dodd, “ from the front 
fence.” 

“ I choose to sit on the gate-post,” said 
Jean. 

“ You can have one gate-post,” said Mr. 
Dodd, “ but I want the other myself.” 

“ One is enough,” said Jean. “ I rarely 
use two at once.” 

“ And then this afternoon we ’ll take the 
children and Dr. Bushnell to the perform- 
ance, and this evening we’ll go by our- 
selves.” 

“ And stay to the concert,” said Helen. 

“And then we’ll all walk home in the 
moonlight,” continued Dodd. “ My fiancee 
is very romantic.” 

“ It must be very nice to have a romantic 
fiancee,” said Putnam. 

235 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 


“ You never will have,” said Jean. “No 
romantic girl could possibly accept you.” 

“ This is good pie,” said Lincoln, gazing 
off into space. 

“ Do they have nice circuses in Europe ? ” 
asked Lillian. 

“ Yes,” replied Dodd, instructively; “ they 
have a very large one in Rome, and Paris is 
a good deal of a circus all by itself, as you 
shall see.” 

“ Yes,” said Lillian, happily; “ I ’m so glad 
I ’m going. I ’ve always loved a circus, and 
if Paris is anything like it, I know I shall 
like that city.” 

“ People always take their little boys to 
the circus,” said Lincoln, plaintively, “ and 
I think you might take me — Ma-ma! ” 

“ All right, son, you shall go if you want 
to — the next time we go,” replied Lillian, 
kindly. 

“ Oh, that ’s what I meant,” said Lincoln. 
“ Of course I ’d be a bother this time.” 

“ Indeed you would,” said his father. 
“We ’re going for pleasure.” 

“ When do you sail ? ” asked Brewster. 

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<= ^ d THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ I ’ve tickets for the fifteenth,” said Dodd. 

“ So soon ? ” said Brewster, in surprise. 

“Yes; isn’t it lovely,” said Lillian. “I 
always did like to get married in a hurry.” 

“ I don’t care how soon you get married,” 
said Jean, “ so long as you wait till after this 
year’s Circus Day, and come home before 
the next one.” 

“Next Circus Day you may be away on 
your own wedding trip,” said Miss Esther. 

“ No,” said Jean; “ I ’d never marry any- 
body who would take me away from Whit- 
field on Circus Day.” 

“January would be a safe month,” said 
Putnam, musingly. 

Jean’s only reply to this sally was a glance 
which was meant to be withering, but some- 
how it turned into a vivid blush. 

“Do you know the address of a good 
flagmaker in the city, Governor? ” said Lin- 
coln. “ I want to telegraph an order for some 
banners.” 

“Do! ” said Miss Esther. 


XXII 


Was ever woman in this humour woo’d ? — Richard III , i, 2. 

Although the afternoon performance was 
scheduled for three o’clock, Jack and Chub, 
anxious to be in time, arrived at the Adams 
house while Miss Esther and her guests 
were still at breakfast. 

“We’re all weddy,” announced Chub, 
consciously patting down her starched white 
ruffles, and turning her back to give a better 
view of her pink sash bows. 

Jack, no less conscious of his new sailor 
suit, but striving manfully not to call undue 
attention to it, remarked, casually, “ I s’pose 
we ’re a little early, but we ’ll wait till 
you ’re ready to go.” 

“How fortunate,” said Lincoln; “then 
you ’ll be here to help us watch the morning 
parade go by.” 

“ Yeth,” said Chub; “ we ’re goingto thit 
on the gate-potht, and you can hold uth 
on.” 


238 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“Huh,” said Jack; “I don’t need to be 
held on. I was n’t last year, and I did n’t 
fall off but once, and that was when the 
elephant hollered.” 

“ I will be held on ,” said Chub, “ by Uncle 
Linkum.” 

“ You ’ll have to sit backward, Chub, so 
the folks in the parade can see that big sash 
of yours.” 

Chub said nothing, but after a few mo- 
ments’ deep thought began tugging at her 
pink sash so effectively that she finally 
landed the big bow exactly in front. 

“ There! ” she said, with a satisfied sigh. 

By eleven o’clock the children were on 
their respective gate-posts, Miss Esther and 
Dr. Bushnell occupying large arm-chairs in 
the gateway between them. The rest of the 
party were ranged along the fence on either 
side like birds on a telegraph wire. 

Rocking amiably, his finger tips together 
in an attitude of judicial consideration, Dr. 
Bushnell filled the hour of waiting with 
pleasant discourse. Whitfield always ex- 
pected to wait an hour after the scheduled 

2 39 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

time for the arrival of the circus parade, and 
in this it was never disappointed. 

“ It has gratified me to note,” the Doctor 
said, “ that the proprietors of this exhibition 
have among their collected animals a fine 
specimen of the wombat.” 

“ Whath a wombat? ” asked Chub. 

“ A wombat,” went on Dr. Bushnell, with 
the air of imparting information to a large 
audience, — “ a wombat is simply a Phas- 
colomys ursinus . It is fond of hay — ” 
u We ’ll take some hay along for the 
wombat,” said Lincoln, kindly. 

“ — which he bites into short pieces 
with his knife-edged teeth. As the poet 
has it, 

Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 

For ’t is — for ’tis — ” 

“ Their nature to,” put in Miss Esther, in- 
voluntarily. 

“True,” continued Dr. Bushnell; “and it 
is the wombat’s nature to excavate the earth 
until it forms a deep tunnel. The wombat is 
by no means an active animal, but trudges 
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< '^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^= y 

along with a heavy, rolling waddle, like the 
gait of a very fat bear.” 

“ I have always admired the gait of a very 
fat bear,” said Brewster, dispassionately. 
“ There is something peculiarly attractive 
and exceedingly graceful about it.” 

Dr. Bushnell was a trifle ruffled by this 
slighting allusion to his favored animal, and 
went on with some asperity. 

“A wombat, my dear sir, is far from 
being an ungraceful animal. I take it you 
have never seen one on its native heath. 
Indeed, a perfect wombat, a perfect wom- 
bat—” 

“ Nobly planned,” said Miss Esther, help- 
fully. 

At this Lincoln Dodd fell off the fence. 

“ Ho! ” said Chub; “ Uncle Linkum wath 
going to hold me on, and now he ’th felled 
off himthelf! 99 

Except that Lincoln was nearly choked 
to death by Chub in her exuberance over the 
little white ponies, the parade passed with- 
out accident. Dr. Bushnell gazed eagerly at 
the open cages, and disappointedly at the 

241 


e ’^=' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

closed ones, hoping to see the promised 
wombat. He philosophically met his failure 
to find it by an unshaken confidence in its 
appearance at the show proper. 

At the afternoon performance Lincoln took 
especial charge of Chub. This proved to be 
a more arduous undertaking than he had 
anticipated. Twice he pulled her out from 
under the seats, and once he rescued her 
from apparent instant death at the feet of the 
elephant. He was also obliged to temper 
generosity with wisdom in the matter of pink 
lemonade and peanuts. 

Miss Esther had started under the mis- 
taken impression that she was taking charge 
of Jack, but he soon made it evident that 
his understanding of the case was that she 
was in his charge. He grandly offered her 
prize packages of gum. He bought for her 
a complete programme of the whole show, 
and carefully scrutinized the numbers on 
their tickets and seats to make sure that they 
corresponded. 

Miss Esther herself was enjoying the after- 
242 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

noon. Aside from the entertainment provided 
by the circus troupe, she was delightedly 
entertained by the performances of her own 
immediate circle. Lillian and Mr. Dodd 
were a most exemplary engaged couple. 
Jean and Putnam, if not announced allies, 
were at least preserving an armed truce. 
As for Helen and Brewster, the more she 
saw them together, the more she thought 
that they were born for each other, and she 
felt confident that soon they would realize 
this for themselves. In consequence of this, 
it seemed to Miss Esther that the last cloud 
was dissipated and that the intents of her 
Matrimonial Bureau were practically the 
same as fulfilled. 

To the exclusion of the startlingly incred- 
ible feats in the ring, Miss Esther’s thoughts 
were entirely concentrated on the pleasant 
outcome of her plans. It was with an expres- 
sion of blank surprise, and a half conscious 
realization of impending disaster, that she 
looked up suddenly and saw Julia Fowler 
coming toward her along the aisle. Her 
first impulse was to stay the invader’s ad- 

243 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

vance at any cost. Involuntarily, she half 
rose from her seat and glared at the intruder. 
Her unwelcoming expression was entirely 
lost on Miss Fowler, who rushed up to her 
and shook her warmly by both hands. 

“I’m so glad to see you again!” she 
cried. 

“How do you do?” said Miss Esther, 
perfunctorily, and with a frigidity of manner 
that would have repelled a less volatile per- 
sonage than Julia Fowler. 

“ Is n’t the circus perfectly lovely ! ” she 
exclaimed. “ I ’m enjoying it so much, and 
when I saw your party I flew right over here, 
and Lieutenant Adams has asked me to go 
home to dinner with you all, and come back 
to the show to-night — and may I go?” 

However much she may have wanted to, 
Miss Esther’s ideas of hospitality would not 
allow her to say no. “Certainly,” she said; 
and if the invitation was not noticeably heart- 
felt, Julia seemed to overlook any lack of 
enthusiasm. Of course, Miss Esther still 
realized, and more emphatically than ever 
as she looked at Julia, the dangers involved. 

244 


* 0 ? the matrimonial bureau ^ 

Mr. Dodd was out of the running. Lincoln’s 
heart interests were not her affair; but Put- 
nam was decidedly susceptible, and her ideas 
of Brewster’s intentions toward Helen were 
as yet so unauthorized that she was by no 
means certain that they might not be easily 
swerved. Still, the mischief was done; the 
blow had fallen, and as a consequence, the 
Adams pluck rose triumphant. 

But Miss Esther had crossed her bridge 
before she came to it. At dinner that night 
Julia was a decided acquisition, and charmed 
everybody. But the two men for whom 
Miss Esther had feared the most were not 
unduly interested in the fair visitor. Indeed, 
the only one who surrendered at sight was 
Lincoln Dodd. This state of mind, however, 
on Lincoln’s part was not necessarily a per- 
manence, as Miss Esther well knew. Put- 
nam, of course, showed the courteous 
deference and gentle consideration which all 
women received from him, but there was no 
apparent undercurrent of personal interest; 
Brewster maintained his usual attitude of 
polite indifference, which, however, had in 

245 


<= ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^=' 

it no lack of civility, but neither did it show 
any trace of a special attraction. 

Athough Whitfield went to the afternoon 
performance ostensibly for the benefit of its 
juvenile element, in the evening it attended 
the show frankly and openly for its own 
amusement. Following this precedent the 
Adams house party at eight o’clock again 
bundled into the automobile and started for 
the tent. The men vowed that it was the 
hardest day’s work they had ever done in 
their lives, but the girls took the day as 
a matter of course, and would not hear of 
omitting any part of the regulation pro- 
gramme. 

Miss Esther’s complacency was restored 
by the turn affairs had taken, and her mind 
was relieved regarding Julia’s invasion. 
Therefore, she started off in the same high 
spirits that had marked the early after- 
noon. 

The circus managers, desirous of saving 
every possible scrap of time, had facilitated 
the midnight moving of their paraphernalia 
by taking the roof off the tent before the 
246 


r ^ > THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^r' 

beginning of the evening performance. Af- 
ter sunset, and if the weather permitted, they 
always did this. The plan was acceptable 
to the audience, and the general effect of the 
crowded tent, open to the starry heavens, 
appealed especially to Brewster as a pictur- 
esquely humorous situation. Desirous of 
seeing it all from the best possible view- 
point, he asked Helen to sit with him in 
the top row of seats. The rest preferred 
seats nearer the ground, Lincoln devoting 
himself to Julia, and Miss Esther, supremely 
satisfied, listening willingly to Dr. Bushnell’s 
oratorical periods. 

“ What a curious picture,” said Helen, as 
she took her seat. 

“ Yes,” replied Brewster; “ I never saw 
anything just like it before.” 

“ I have seen this every year,” said Helen, 
“but it always impresses me anew. The 
incongruity of the tawdry, noisy glitter of the 
scene below, compared to the calm beauty 
of the stars above, is — ” 

“ Is, perhaps, the ultimate contrast?” 

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Why 

247 


<= ^ > THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

is it, I wonder, that I can’t express myself 
as I want to? You always seem to know 
just what word to use.” 

“ Perhaps I know more words than you 
do.” 

“ No, I know words enough, but I never 
can command them at the time I want them, 
though they often come to me when it is too 
late to use them.” 

“Like Thackeray’s cab wit,” suggested 
Brewster. 

“Yes, I can quite picture him, disconso- 
late in his cab, saying to himself the bright 
things which he ought to have said an hour 
before. I have done the same thing.” 

“You should have a preceptor, one who 
could teach you to say the right thing at the 
right time.” 

“ It would have to be one who would not 
only understand my moods, but be in 
thorough sympathy with them ; some one 
of — ” 

“ Quick perception,” said Brewster. 

“Yes; and gentle — ” 

“ Instincts.” 

248 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Yes; and a way of teaching that would 
not make me self-conscious or embarrassed.” 

“ That goes without saying if the teacher 
be of a true perception and sympathy.” 

“ It might as 'well be you sang a sex- 
tette of clowns through six megaphones in 
the ring. 

“ So it might,” said Brewster; “in fact it 
might much better be me than anybody else. 
I think I will begin now.” 

“I wish you would,” said Helen; “I do, 
honestly, but Pm afraid you will find it 
a hopeless task. There are so many things 
that you know so much more about than 
I do — ” 

“ There are a few? came bellowing up 
from the megaphone sextette. 

“The megaphone men seem inclined to 
help out,” said Brewster. 

“ Yes, and I am grateful to any one who 
will help me.” 

“May I try, Helen, though gratitude is 
not the return I ask ? ” 

“ I may love you too well to let you go? 
vociferated the insistent megaphones. 

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<f ^ d THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Helen looked at Brewster. “ The mega- 
phone men are helping,” she said. 

“ Would you have said that if you had 
thought of it in time ? ” he asked. 

“ Yes,” said Helen. 


XXIII 


And certainly a woman’s thought runs before her actions. 
— As You Like It, iv, i. 

“ Where ’s Putnam ? ” asked Miss Esther, 
coming out on the East porch the next 
morning. 

“ Don’t know,” said Lincoln. “ I have n’t 
seen him since breakfast.” 

Chub, seated on a low stool directly in 
front of Lincoln, regarding him with wor- 
shiping eyes, volunteered the information 
that she “ thaw him picking a lot of woth- 
eth,” and that he had afterward gone out of 
the gate and walked rapidly up the street. 

“ Ah,” said Miss Esther, with a satisfied 
smile, “ I suppose he has gone over to 
Jean’s.” 

“ I thuppothe tho,” Chub acquiesced. 

But when, a little later, Jean came over 
to the Adams house, Miss Esther looked at 
her aghast. “ Where ’s Putnam ? ” she said, 
sternly. 

251 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ' F= % > 

“ That ’s what I want to know,” said Jean. 
“ He asked me to play tennis with him this 
morning.” 

u Why, I don’t see where he can be,” said 
Miss Esther; “but he’ll probably be back 
in a few minutes. Chub said he went up the 
road — ” 

“ Oh, up the road,” said Jean. 

Jean sat down by Chub. “I did want to 
play tennis this morning,” she said. “ I 
think somebody else might take Lieutenant 
Adams’s place.” 

“ If that very obscure hint is aimed at all 
in my direction,” said Lincoln, “ I refuse 
to act upon it. When I play tennis I must 
have a foeman worthy of my skill. Why don’t 
you ask Chub to play with you ? ” 

Chub, taking this as an invitation, rose 
and began a search for Putnam’s racket. “ 1 
will play with Couthin Jean,” she said, kindly, 
“ becauthe bad old Uncle Putnam hath ranned 
away, and ith n’t never coming back to play 
with you.” 

Although Miss Esther was used to Chub’s 
romancing, this oracular utterance gave her 
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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

a sudden but unmistakable shock. “ Don’t 
mind what the baby says,” she said. 

“ Couthin Jean doeth n’t care if Couthin 
Putnam doeth n’t never come back,” insisted 
Chub. 

“ Oh, yes, she does, Chub,” said Lincoln; 
“ we all love Cousin Putnam.” 

“Yeth,” said Chub, who always agreed 
w’ith Lincoln; “ we all love Couthin Put- 
nam.” 

“Do you?” asked Miss Esther, looking 
pointedly at Jean. 

“ Yes, I love him a lot. I began worship- 
ing at his shrine the very day he arrived. 
He seems to compel that sort of thing.” 

“ He ’s an all round good fellow,” said 
Lincoln. 

“ He is, indeed,” said Miss Esther, ear- 
nestly. “ I don’t know what I shall do with- 
out him. He says he can’t stay more than a 
fortnight longer. I wonder where he is now ? 
I thought he was over at your house.” 

“ I know where he ith,” said Chub, with 
the air of one who is possessed of a state 
secret. 


2 53 


^ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU ^ 

“Where?” 

“ I don’t think Uncle Putnam wanth me 
to tell.” 

“Well, don’t tell if it’s a secret,” said 
Lincoln. 

“ It ith a thecret,” said Chub, “ and I won’t 
tell, becauthe he don’t want anybody to know 
he wath going to Farmington.” 

“What did he go to Farmington for?” 
asked Miss Esther. 

“ I don’t know, but I gueth he wath going 
to thell wotheth.” 

“ There ought to be a good market for 
roses in Farmington,” said Lincoln, reflect- 
ively. 

“Well,” exclaimed Miss Esther; “if 
Putnam is carting roses over to Julia Fowl- 
er — ” 

“ Oh, maybe she likes roses,” remarked 
Jean, casually. 

“ Oh,” said Miss Esther, softening a lit- 
tle; “if you say it’s all right, I suppose 
it is.” 

“ Of course it ’s all right,” said Lincoln. 
“ Whatever Putnam does is right.” 

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“What an enviable reputation,” said 
Helen, appearing suddenly in the doorway. 
“ I wish people would say that whatever I 
did was always right.” 

“But, my dear girl,” said Miss Esther, 
“ you could n’t expect to be looked up to 
as such a paragon of all the virtues as 
my cousin is. Of course, though, you ’re 
always right — as far as you go.” 

“ I ’ve gone pretty far this time,” said 
Helen. 

“ I thought as much,” said Jean. “ When 
did it happen? ” 

“ Last night — at the circus,” replied 
Helen, serenely. 

“ Good for you! ” said Lincoln. 

“What did Couthin Helen do at the thir- 
cuth ? ” asked Chub, with interest. 

“ She went and engaged herself to Mr. 
Brewster,” said Jean. 

“ What ! ” exclaimed Miss Esther. “ Win- 
throp Brewster! ” 

“ He ’s the only Mr. Brewster I know,” 
said Helen, apologetically. 

“ He ’s all right,” said Lincoln. “ He ’s 

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the best Brewster going. I think it ’s 
great.” 

Jean said nothing, but flew at Helen and 
bestowed upon her a few dozen of that par- 
ticular variety of kisses which are supposed 
to mean a congratulatory acknowledgment 
of tidings such as these, and taking posses- 
sion of her, marched her down the steps and 
across the lawn. 

“ As President of the Matrimonial Bureau,” 
said Lincoln, enthusiastically, “ you are 
certainly making a screaming success of 
yourself.” 

“Yes,” said Miss Esther, still looking a 
little bewildered, “ but I am so surprised.” 

“ Why, you planned it yourself.” 

“ Yes, I know, but I thought my plans had 
all fallen through. Helen was so haughty 
and Mr. Brewster was so reserved. I was n’t 
half so surprised when Lillian announced 
her engagement. I wish Helen would come 
back. I want to ask her more about it.” 

“ Oh, she ’s engaged all right — just as 
much as Lillian. Now that makes two, and 
you only have Jean left on your books.” 

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“ Yes,” said Miss Esther, complacently. 
“ And she ’s all right, too, for I ’m just as 
sure Putnam means to marry her as if he had 
said so. Sometimes I think she ’s engaged 
now.” 

“ Perhaps she is,” said Lincoln. 

When Helen and Jean reached the gate 
they turned naturally in the direction of 
Lillian’s house. They found her on the 
veranda, but when she saw the excited vis- 
itors she jumped to the conclusion that the 
exigencies of the occasion could only be 
met in the studio. 

“ Come on up,” she cried; “ what is the 
matter ? ” 

“ Ask Helen,” said Jean. 

“ Well, you see,” began Helen, “ you said 
that Miss Esther said that she thought I ought 
to marry Mr. Brewster, and so — ” 

“ And so she feels that she must,” inter- 
rupted Jean. 

u How perfectly lovely,” cried Lillian; u I 
am so glad.” 

“ On the principle that misery loves com- 
pany? ” suggested Jean. 

2 57 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Yes — on that principle, of course; but 
I don’t believe we call it misery, do we, 
Helen?” 

“Not yet,” said Helen. 

“ May I come in ? ” said a voice from the 
doorway ; and without waiting for a reply 
Miss Esther walked in. “ I could n’t wait 
another minute,” said she ; “ I just had to see 
Helen and hear more about this affair.” 

“ Helen says it ’s all your doing, anyway,” 
said Lillian. 

“ Well, I did n’t say exactly that,” replied 
Helen. 

“Well, what did you say, then?” de- 
manded Lillian. 

“ Why, I don’t know that I said anything.” 

“Then it’s time you began,” said Jean; 
“ and you ’ve got to tell us every single thing 
about it right straight away.” 

“ It was just this way,” said Helen; “ Mr. 
Brewster said if I wanted to marry him I 
could, and I said I did, and that was all there 
was about it.” 

“ What a kind man he is,” remarked 
Lillian, reflectively. 

258 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Did he tell you anything about his 
castle? ” asked Jean. 

“ Yes, he described it at length. It has 
the most modern and approved automatic 
drawbridges and an electric moat — ” 

“ Is that anything like an electric motor? ” 
asked Jean. 

“ Same thing,” replied Helen; “ and it has 
a portcullis and scullions and castellated tur- 
rets and — ” 

“ And a Prince? ” said Lillian. 

“ Yes; a very beautiful Prince, too.” 

“ Yes, Helen, he is,” said Miss Esther, 
“ and I am very much pleased. He seems to 
come pretty near realizing the ideals which 
you were discussing last spring.” 

“Yes,” said Helen, disdainfully; “Win- 
throp goes far beyond any ideals I had 
then.” 

“ Well,” exclaimed Jean, “ for a driveling 
idiot, give me a girl who has been engaged 
something less than twenty-four hours! ” 

“I think so, too,” agreed Lillian; “I’ve 
been engaged most a week, and I ’m as 
sensible as a judge.” 

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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ I wonder how I ’d act if I were engaged,” 
said Jean, reflectively. 

“ Are n’t you? ” said Miss Esther. 

“ When I am,” said Jean, “ you shall be 
the first to know of it.” 

“ Of course I shall,” said Miss Esther; “I 
made Putnam promise that he ’d tell me the 
very first one.” 

“Well, you keep right on asking him 
every day,” said Jean, “and perhaps you ’ll 
find out.” 

“Just to think,” said Miss Esther, “ only 
last spring we were discussing the futures 
of you three girls, and now you are all 
practically settled. Helen has her ideal 
Prince, Lillian has her fairy godfather, and 
Jean — ” 

“Jean isn’t engaged yet,” said Lillian. 

“ When I see how it affects you two 
girls,” said Jean, “ I am not sure that I want 
to be.” 

“ Sour grapes,” said Helen. 

“ Nothing of the sort,” said Miss Esther. 
“Jean can be engaged any minute she wants 
to.” 


260 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

u Well, I wish she ’d hurry up, then,” said 
Lillian. “ It makes me embarrassed to have 
her left out.” 

“Could you give me till to-morrow?” 
asked Jean, meekly. 


XXIV 


I am in haste ; go along with me : I ’ll tell you all. — Merry 
Wives of Windsor , v, i. 

Miss Esther was more than delighted 
when Putnam came to her in the library that 
evening and said that he had something 
to tell her. 

“ Perhaps I can guess what it is,” she said. 

“ You’re pretty clever if you can,” he re- 
plied, “ for I did n’t know it myself until 
to-day.” 

“No,” said Miss Esther, smiling; “you 
did n’t know it yourself until eleven o’clock 
this morning.” 

“No, I did n’t,” said Putnam, honestly. 
“In fact it came over me rather suddenly, 
and I thought you’d like it if I told you 
first.” 

“Are you really engaged?” asked Miss 
Esther. 

“Oh, no; I haven’t spoken to her yet 
about anything like that.” 

262 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU e= ^* 

“ Well, why don’t you? ” said Miss Esther, 
with a slight show of impatience. 

“ I don’t know how she ’d take it,” said 
Putnam, with the first indication of diffidence 
that Miss Esther had ever seen in her cousin. 

“ There ’s only one way to find out.” 

“ Oh, of course, I shall ask her sometime, 
but not yet.” 

“Well, don’t wait too long. I am very 
glad you have told me this. I think you and 
she were made for each other.” 

“ So do I. I never before believed in love 
at first sight, but it certainly is what has 
happened to me. She is the most beautiful 
girl I ever saw.” 

“ Perhaps not beautiful,” said Miss Esther, 
“ but she is certainly very pretty.” 

“ More than pretty. I think she is a rav- 
ing beauty.” 

“You’re probably prejudiced,” said Miss 
Esther, comprehendingly, “but I ’m glad you 
do admire her so much. She is a good- 
hearted little thing with all her whimsical 
temper; but I feared you might think her 
perhaps too countrified and unsophisticated ” 

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e ^=‘ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“Well!” exclaimed Putnam, “I never 
should call Julia Fowler unsophisticated. 
To my mind she stands for everything that 
represents the best and highest type of a 
cultured woman of the world. That kind of 
a woman, Cousin Esther, is the kind that 
appeals most strongly to me. It is the type 
I like best and Miss Fowler is the perfection 
of that type, just as little Jean Richards is 
the perfection of the peach-blossom type, or 
Chub is the perfection of winsome babyhood, 
and it’s a great thing to meet at last the 
highest possible expression of the type one 
most desires. I have a great deal of the 
Adams clannishness in me, and I am glad 
you so thoroughly approve my choice.” 

“ Putnam,” said Miss Esther, looking at 
her cousin desperately, “go to bed! ” 

Left to herself, Miss Esther faced the situ- 
ation. Her worst fears were verified. The 
invasion of Julia had proved as disastrous as 
she had anticipated. Not only were her own 
plans defeated, but she realized the appall- 
ing wrong she had done to Jean by assisting 
to bring about a state of affairs that now 
264 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

she knew must inevitably break the child’s 
heart. 

“ It seems,” she thought, “ that this glori- 
ous summer of mine is like to be turned into 
a winter of discontent. Not that I care so 
much for myself : the Matrimonial Bureau is 
not yet at the end of its rope. I could, of 
course, find another Prince for Jean, but the 
trouble is, I ’m sure she has set her heart on 
Putnam, notwithstanding her apparent antag- 
onism, and after what she said this morning 
I feel sure I am right. I think she expected 
him to tell her so to-night, and now — well, 
I will do what I can. Patience, and shuffle 
the cards — perhaps there ’ll be a way out 
of it yet. But I can’t see a ray of hope for 
my poor little Jean.” 

But if Miss Esther had seen her poor little 
Jean at that moment she would have been 
obliged to confess that at least one ray of 
hope was illuminating her darksome hori- 
zon. 

As a matter of fact she was spinning along 
with Lincoln Dodd in his automobile, quite 

265 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

as contented as though there were no Put- 
nam Adams in existence. 

“ You see,” Dodd was saying, “ I would 
have gone, but I had reasons for not wanting 
to go.” 

“ I don’t see,” insisted Jean, “ what rea- 
sons you could possibly have for not want- 
ing to go on a lovely yachting trip like that 
— way up the coast to Labrador — to be 
gone for weeks, and with such a lovely 
party — they are lovely, are n’t they?” 

“ Yes; the people are nice enough,” said 
Lincoln. 

“And a crew all in white duck, with 
beautiful gilt buttons — are n’t they? ” 

“Yes; the crew is good enough.” 

“ And beautiful ladies, in gorgeous clothes, 
sitting around in wicker arm-chairs on the 
deck ! Are n’t they ? ” 

“Oh, yes; the women’s gowns are good 
enough.” 

“ And then, whenever they stop anywhere, 
there would be gala nights, with flowers and 
music, and dances on deck and Japanese lan- 
terns and flags flying and banners waving! 

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r ^ > THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

Oh, I think it would be heavenly! I wish 
I could go ! ” 

“ Come on, and go — with me ! ” 

“Oh,” cried Jean, “I wish I could! But 
I ’m not invited.” 

“ My wife is invited wherever I am.” 

“ I did n’t know you had a wife,” said Jean, 
with an air of polite interest. 

“ I have n’t,” said Dodd, “ but I will have 
in about twent}^ minutes.” 

Lincoln turned the wheel and the huge 
machine swung around with reckless speed. 

“ Where are you going to get her ? ” asked 
Jean. 

“ Now, listen,” said Lincoln, as they flew 
along the road, “ and think fast. If we go on 
this yachting party, — you and I, — we ’ve 
got to catch that twelve forty-five train from 
Utica.” 

“ What! ” gasped Jean. 

“ It will take us about twenty minutes to 
get to Dr. Bushnell’s; about twenty more 
to get married. That leaves us two hours 
to get over to the Utica station, and I guess 
this old machine will do it.” 


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THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ You ’re talking nonsense,” said Jean. 

“ Yes, I know,” said Lincoln, cheerfully; 
“ but never mind that now. I told you you 
had to think fast. Now you’ve got all the 
way from here to Dr. Bushnell’s parsonage 
to make up your mind, and if you don’t want 
to go on, say the word and I ’ll turn around.” 

As they stopped at Dr. Bushnell’s gate, 
Jean said, “ I think we ’d better turn 
around.” 

“Too late now,” said Lincoln, lifting her 
out. 

“ I thought it would be,” said Jean, softly. 

In response to Lincoln’s imperative ring 
at the door-bell, Dr. Bushnell appeared 
and looked with surprise at his two late 
visitors. 

“ Come in,” he said, blandly; “ come in.” 

“ Thank you, we will,” said Lincoln. 

Mrs. Bushnell rose to greet the pair as 
they entered the pastor’s study. She was 
Jean’s aunt, and as Jean’s mother had been 
dead for many years, Mrs. Bushnell had al- 
ways exercised more or less authority over 
her willful, high-spirited niece. Mr. Richards, 
268 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU (= % > 

Jean’s father, was away in a distant Western 
city on a business trip, and so Mrs. Bushnell 
considered Jean her special property for the 
time being. 

“ You must excuse us if we seem rather 
hurried,” said Lincoln, with a more busi- 
nesslike air than he often showed. “ We are 
sailing to-morrow morning, and we must 
catch the twelve forty-five train out of Utica. 
We want you to marry us, and you’ve got 
just twenty minutes to do it in.” 

“ Is that time enough? ” asked Jean, anx- 
iously. 

“ My dear young friends,” began Dr. 
Bushnell, “you must realize the grave im- 
portance of the step you propose to take. 
The responsibilities of — ” 

“ What are you two children talking 
about?” broke in Mrs. Bushnell. 

“ Never mind what we are talking about,” 
said Lincoln, hurriedly. “We’ll tell you 
some other time — we ’ll write to you — but 
now we want you to marry us — ” 

“ But,” said Mrs. Bushnell, “ have you 
thought this thing all over?” 
i 


269 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“ Indeed I have,” said Jean; “ I had twenty 
minutes, and I thought fast. You see, it’s 
this way, Aunt Serena; I’m going to marry 
Lincoln, anyway, and if I marry him to-night 
and catch that twelve forty-five train, we can 
go on the most beautiful yachting trip you 
ever heard of. Way up to Labrador, and the 
ladies have the most beautiful clothes, and 
Japanese lanterns and flowers — and every- 
thing.” 

“ But, Jean — ” began her aunt. 

“Yes, I know, Aunt Serena, but we’ve 
only got twenty minutes, you know — and, 
Auntie, the yacht is the loveliest thing — it ’s 
all white and brass and shining — ” 

“ Ah, yes,” said Dr. Bushnell, “ as the poet 
so effectively puts it, 6 A painted ship — a 
painted ship ’ — ” 

“Now hold on, Dr. Bushnell,” said Lin- 
coln; “ as I told you, we ’ve only got twenty 
minutes — five are gone already. As Jean 
says, she’s going to marry me, anyway; so 
you may as well let us go on that yachting 
trip and send us off with your blessing.” 

“You ’re the only one that can do it, Uncle 
270 


e ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^ > 

Isaiah,” said Jean; “and please do, ’cause I 
would love that trip ! ” 

“ But, Jean,” said Mrs. Bushnell, “ does 
Miss Esther know about this ? ” 

“ No, and that makes me downright sorry; 
but I can’t help it, Aunt Serena. You tell 
her to-morrow, won’t you ? and I ’ll write to 
her. But we must catch that twelve forty- 
five train.” 

“ So you must,” said Dr. Bushnell, rising 
to the occasion, “ so you must. Serena, my 
dear, if you will call the parlor maid — her 
name has for the moment escaped me, but 
you will doubtless remember it — if you will 
call her for a second witness we will proceed 
with the ceremony.” 

“ Her name is Martha,” said Mrs. Bush- 
nell, still hesitating. 

“ Call Martha,” said Lincoln, decisively. 

“ Are you sure,” began Mrs. Bushnell, 
“ that — ” 

“ Call Martha,” said Jean. 


XXV 


Those men are happy ; and so are all are near her. — Henry 
VIII, iv, i. 

After she had dismissed Putnam, Miss 
Esther sat disconsolately in her library, 
worrying over the imminent breaking of 
Jean’s heart She was fully convinced that 
Jean’s interest in Putnam was very real, and 
she feared the effect on her emotional nature 
when she should discover Putnam’s attitude 
toward Julia Fowler. 

Possibly Miss Esther had taken too much 
for granted. Neither Jean herself nor Put- 
nam had told her definitely of any intention 
that either had in relation to the future hap- 
piness or unhappiness of the other. But 
still, Miss Esther had observed the drifting 
of the straws, and being used to the drawing 
of conclusions from seemingly unimportant 
premises, she had decided in her own mind 
at least, that there was only one conclusion 
272 


r |^ = ' the matrimonial bureau 

to be drawn. This was one which pleased 
her very much. 

On the whole, Miss Esther, up to this 
time, had thought that the plans which had 
been so whimsically made in the beginning 
had been brought to a conclusion that was 
not only quite to her liking, but which was 
entirely fitting from every point of view. 

And now, just as she had dreamed that 
beside being the architect of the fortunes of 
her beloved girls, she had helped, too, in 
the detailed drawings of the plans for Put- 
nam’s future, he had come in with the start- 
ling announcement that the design was not 
at all satisfactory, and that he had decided 
upon using some home-made affair that she 
knew was not drawn to a proper scale. 

Somehow, though, even in spite of the 
fact that one of her pet plans had apparently 
failed, Miss Esther believed that she should 
win. Nor was it in a sense of winning that 
she thought of it. Rather, she believed that 
now that two of her protegees had found 
what she chose to call their Fates, the other 
one of the three should, sometime, come to 

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<= |f' THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

a place where there should be the proverbial 
happy ending of the chapter. How it was 
all to come about she did not know. Her 
faith was secure in the fact that she knew 
what she knew. She had said long ago that 
the Adams pluck would ultimately win, and 
while the mere planning of the summer had 
been begun in the same spirit of romantic 
whimsicality which made her as a child play 
with the people of her dreams — on the 
stairs, on the lawns, and through the severe 
old halls of the Adams house — and which 
later had made her make these same heroes 
and heroines of her dreams her playmates 
through a life that would have been other- 
wise very lonely — “ Ah,” she said, “some 
dreams come true; and after all, the jesting 
word is not so often false but that it may be 
true.” 

Perhaps Miss Esther did not realize that 
the whole summer had been a living of the 
dream which, though built of the flimsiest 
of fabrics in the beginning, had proved, at 
the last, to be constructed of very solid 
materials. 

274 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU e= ^ > 

Begun, as it was, it seemed that the sum- 
mer, after all, had shaped itself with a sort 
of seriousness of which Miss Esther had not 
dreamed. She cared too much for the girls 
to play with them — and particularly she 
would not have played a game that would 
bring to them anything but the most perfect 
happiness. In planning it all, she had be- 
lieved that it was rather a bit of a game — 
such as she played with her characters in 
the plays in the old volumes in her library — 
hers and her father’s — and before that the 
father’s father’s — and even his father before 
him — they had all lived and dreamed among 
the books which had been to Esther Adams 
an inspiration and a delight which had lasted 
through the years of her life. 

That these dreams, in some subtle fashion, 
had really carried out the mental suggestion 
of a mere advertisement in a Sunday news- 
paper, brought to her notice in a way that 
was little short of providential — all this 
entered not at all into the calculations of the 
woman who now faced a condition which 
was far from being merely theoretical. 

2 75 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

So far as two of her girls were concerned, 
she was satisfied. Not that she — in thinking 
it all over — would admit to herself that she 
had deliberately brought Helen and Brew- 
ster together, or that she had thrown Lillian 
in the face of George Washington Dodd — 
far from it. That she was satisfied, there 
could be no doubt. But, as she put it to 
herself, “ It was fortunate that Mr. Brewster 
came to visit Dr. Bushnell, and it was for- 
tunate that Mr. Dodd came to visit his son.” 

Still — and this is the perversity of rea- 
soning — she felt that Putnam’s failure to 
carry out a cherished plan of her own was 
something for which she was directly re- 
sponsible — not alone because of the fact 
that she felt that he would fail to do as she 
wished — and she disliked antagonism, like 
all the Adamses — but she felt, too, that 
somehow she was responsible to Jean in 
having brought her to the place where 
she might by any chance fall in love with 
a man who was fickle enough to be drawn 
away by the first pretty face that rose above 
the horizon. 

276 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

There was in it all something which was 
altogether too like the suggestion of failure 
to appeal to Miss Esther. A battle fairly 
fought — won or lost — it did n’t matter, so 
long as it was in the open: this was her de- 
light. But to make an attempt, under cover, 
with however good intentions, and then fail 
— that was a sting, and one which made her 
feel that it would have been better never to 
have tried. Logic entered into the discus- 
sion not at all. She would not admit that 
she had tried to accomplish anything. And 
yet, behind it all, there was the haunting 
shadow of a failure. 

She was as much annoyed as surprised 
when at that late hour Dr. Bushnell called 
upon her. 

“ How do you do,” she said, with a per- 
functory politeness. “What is the charity 
this time ? ” 

“Ah, Miss Esther, you will have your 
little joke,” said her visitor, blandly, “but it 
is not a charity this time. I come upon a far 
different errand. I bring news that will sur- 
prise you — ay, that will surprise you greatly. 

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<S ^=’ THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

I come as winged messenger — as winged 
messenger — the quotation has escaped 
me.” 

“ But what is your important news ? ” 

“ It is indeed important news. Mr. Dodd 
— Mr. Lincoln Dodd — ” 

“ Has anything happened to Lincoln?” 
broke in Miss Esther. 

“ I do not know that 6 happened ? is the 
term which I should use, but certainly some- 
thing has occurred. Something has occurred 
to Mr. Lincoln Dodd. But a half hour since, 
I married Mr. Lincoln Dodd to my niece, 
Miss Jean Richards.” 

“ What ! ” exclaimed Miss Esther, ex- 
citedly. “ What! Jean married! ” 

“ Yes,” continued Dr. Bushnell, calmly, 
“they are married. My wife and I were 
very much surprised, as you are; but Jean 
is impulsive, you know, and Mr. Dodd 
said that it was absolutely necessary for 
them to catch the twelve forty-five train 
from Utica — ” 

“ From Utica,” gasped Miss Esther; “have 
they gone ? ” 

278 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU <= ^§=' 

“Yes, they have gone, and Mr. Dodd 
begged me to offer you his deepest apologies 
for seeming to leave you thus suddenly. But 
he said he would write.” 

“ Write ! ” exclaimed Miss Esther; “ I 
should think he’d better! I never heard of 
such a performance. Jean! Lincoln! ” 

Whistling blithely, George Washington 
Dodd came through the hall. 

“ Will you come in here ! ” called out Miss 
Esther. “ What do you think! ” 

“ What has happened,” inquired Mr. Dodd, 
as he came smilingly into the library. 

“ Tell him, Dr. Bushnell,” said Miss 
Esther. 

“ Prepare yourself, my dear sir,” began 
Dr. Bushnell, “for a great surprise. As I 
was seated in my study this evening — ” 

“ Lincoln took Jean over there and married 
her,” broke in Miss Esther. 

“Exactly so,” agreed Dr. Bushnell; “ex- 
actly so.” 

“ Lincoln! ” said Mr. Dodd, bewilderedly, 
“and Jean! Are you sure you mean Lin- 
coln?” 


279 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

“Yes,” said Dr. Bushnell; “he came in 
his automobile. I am sure it was Mr. Lin- 
coln Dodd.” 

“Yes,” said Mr. Dodd, reflectively; “it 
must have been he. On the whole, I am 
rather pleased than otherwise.” 

“ Pleased! ” cried Miss Esther, “ pleased! 
It ’s glorious. It ’s perfectly magnificent.” 

“ I am glad you feel that way, Miss Esther,” 
said Dr. Bushnell, cheerfully. “As Shake- 
speare — as Shakespeare says — ” 

“ As Shakespeare says,” said Miss Esther, 
interrupting him, “ ‘ O, rejoice beyond a 
common joy! and set it down with gold on 
lasting pillars. 5 ” 

Lincoln’s promised letter came. Miss 
Esther read it in the library. A part of it ran 
thus : 

“ Although my most abject apologies are 
due for running away as I did, with apparent 
ingratitude for your hospitality, I maintain 
that the exigencies of the plans of the Matri- 
monial Bureau demanded quick action. As 
Chairman of the Executive Committee and 
280 


THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

President of the Advisory Board, I felt the 
responsibilities of my position, and I trust 
you will approve and ratify my action in the 
matter. 

“Your orders, when I enlisted in your 
service, I have carried out in spirit if not in 
letter. You may remember that the first 
duty you required of me was to marry one 
of your clients. This I have done, and be- 
ing thus disqualified for further assistance in 
your noble work, I am forced regretfully to 
offer you my resignation. 

“ If I may be pardoned for referring to one 
small favor I was happily enabled to grant, 
I will say, in connection with the fact of my 
bringing my father to Whitfield, that my 
great regret is that I have only one father to 
lay at the feet of the Matrimonial Bureau.” 

“ One was enough,” said Miss Esther, 
placidly. “ I think I may congratulate my- 
self on the unqualified success of my plans. 
Fortune brings in some boats that are not 
steered, and though I steered some myself, 
Fortune played into my hands.” 

“What are you doing, Couthin Ethter?” 

281 


<= ^= > THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU 

cried Chub, dancing into the room with her 
arms full of flowers. 

u I ’m winding up the affairs of the Matri- 
monial Bureau,” replied Miss Esther, taking 
the baby up in her lap. 

“ Whath that mean ? ” demanded Chub. 
“It was an effort to make some people 
happy, which succeeded beyond anything 
I ever dreamed of.” 

“Thath nithe,” said Chub, contentedly. 
“ Did it make you happy ? ” 

“ Very happy,” said Miss Esther. 



*776 





















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